


My Living Hell

by Sephirotha



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M, Humor, Parody, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-27
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2017-12-27 18:51:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 55,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/982373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sephirotha/pseuds/Sephirotha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My name is Xeann, I'm No.XVI and this is my journal of events that happened whilst I was at the Organization.  I do swear a bit.  You've been warned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beauty Experiement

My name is Xeann. I’m No. XVI, the Night Princess. I’m a vampire, working for the Organization to gain a new heart to make me human. I have power over shadows so I’m normally used to go on spying missions, which is boring if I might add. No. XV has disappeared for weeks now and no-one has seen her. But during the time she left, weird things happened in the Organization. Now, vampires are thought to be extinct but there are still one or two out there feasting on humans. I was an unfortunate victim to be attacked by a bloodthirsty vampire and I was turned. Saïx found me and took me into the Organization. It took a while to make friends within the dreary castle that became my home. But soon enough I found myself laughing with Axel, Demyx, Xion and Roxas, my new friends. No one knows why XV suddenly disappeared, I didn’t personally know her and she often stayed away from me anyway.  
Now there’s No. IV, Vexen, who took an interest in me because I was a vampire. His experiments began on me one month after XV was announced missing. Everyone was having dinner in the dining room. But not me, vampires aren’t known to eat. We would eat if we wanted to but my instincts told me to not eat because I’ll only gain weight. Drinking blood was essential for vampires to stay…uh…existing because technically we’re dead. So as I was walking out of the castle to hunt down something to drink its blood, Vexen ‘bumped into’ me. I’ll explain the speech marks later.  
“XVI, going out so late?” he said with a raised eyebrow.  
“Yes, I need to feed on blood rather than unnecessary carbohydrates,” I replied to him.  
“Well you shan’t have to go out tonight, I have a Heartless for you to drink from,” Vexen grinned.  
That should have been the first warning. But I was so tired, trust me, when I have to go to Hollow Bastion for a mission I always get hunted down by Sephiroth and forced to have a battle with him which is pretty hard to survive.  
“Sure, that should do just fine,” I smiled back and followed him to the labs where he had a Scarlet Tango locked up in a cage.  
I lunged for the creature and sunk my fangs deep into it, drinking it dry. I saw Vexen writing notes and didn’t bother to question, mainly because I was so tired and I spent half an hour in the medical room to get out the part of Masamune that got stuck into my shoulder. I tasted something chemically within the blood but shrugged it off. That should have been my second warning.  
“Thanks for that, Vexen,” I yawned as the Heartless disappeared back into the darkness from whence it came “I’m going to bed early. See ya!”  
As I left the labs, I heard a rather ominous chuckle escape from the academic’s lips. That should have been my third warning. I went straight up to my room, took my coat off and snuggled into my bed naked, as I normally did every night. When I woke up the next morning, things got pretty weird.  
The first thing I felt when I woke up was that I wasn’t bloodthirsty for breakfast blood as I normally was. That should have been my fourth warning really. So I got dressed and stepped outside and it began.  
“Morning, Xeann!” chirruped two very unusually happy voices.  
I turned around to greet the two Keyblade wielders had they not ran up to me and hugged both of my legs tightly. Xion sighed and snuggled into me, a light blush across her face.  
“Did you sleep well?” she asked with bright sparkling eyes.  
“Umm…yeah,” I smiled with a raised eyebrow at her peculiar behaviour.  
“Did you dream about anything?” Roxas asked eagerly, his eyes just as bright and sparkly.  
He also had a light blush across his cheeks which struck me as strange.  
“Um…not really,” I replied to him as he snuggled into me with a warm smile “Could you guys…uh…get off my legs please?”  
“Mmmm…warm…” Xion purred as she rubbed her cheek up against my thigh.  
“Your coat is very soft today, Xeann,” Roxas said “Did you just wash it?”  
“Roxas, these coats are made out of a particular material that don’t require much washing,” I pointed out and tried to free myself from them.  
I ended up shuffling down the corridor with them attached to my legs like they had been super-glued onto them.  
“Oi you two!” Larxene’s voice echoed down the corridor “Scram!”  
“Scary,” Xion whined as she and Roxas detached themselves from my legs and ran off.  
I shook my legs out while watching them and yelped when Larxene’s hand landed itself on my shoulder. I took one look at her face and my eyebrows raised themselves up that they would have disappeared into my hair when I saw a light blush across her cheeks.  
“Wotcha, princess,” she winked at me with a grin “I take it you had a pleasant sleep?”  
“Uh…yeah…” I said slowly as she then swung her arm around my shoulders and brought me closer.  
“You just tell me if anyone else bothers you and I’ll deal with them,” she giggled and summoned her kunai to swipe into thin air a couple of times “It’s hard to be surrounded by pervs and us girls have got to stick together.”  
“Umm…sure?”   
Larxene hummed merrily as she let me go and sauntered up the corridor before me. I stood still as if she had just struck me with one of her lightning bolts. Larxene was never nice to anyone and I was no exception. Normally she would have given me a sharp retort about how I’m anorexic or hinted that I was sleeping my way through the Organization. Heck, she would even try to sneak a ninja attack at me if she had the chance. When my legs finally began moving, I began to feel self-conscious in case she had laid a trap anywhere and the whole façade had been to get my guard down. I stopped when I caught a whiff of roses.  
“Ah, good morning, my little vampire,” Marluxia purred with a light blush that matched his hair across his cheeks as he stepped out of his room with a bouquet of roses.  
Eh heh heh heh, oh dear. I just grinned politely at him.  
“Morning, Marluxia,” I greeted.  
I blinked as Marluxia pressed the bouquet into my hands and he smirked.  
“It’s true, your lips and eyes are redder than my roses,” he simpered and I just gaped at him.  
Marluxia was furious when I had described my lips and eyes to be redder than his precious roses. Why would he actually agree with that now? He gave me a light pinch on my cheek and sauntered off, leaving me dumbstruck. Awkwardly adjusting the roses in my grip, I continued heading over to the Grey Area. I stopped when I smelt the strong brew of Luxord’s tea.  
“Ah, good morning, princess,” he greeted me at the door of his room with two cups of tea in his hands “I was just looking for someone to test my newest brew that I’ve invented.”  
“You invent brews?” I echoed, cocking my head to the side in interest.  
He nodded and I began to feel uneasy when I saw the blush appear on his cheeks.  
“Try it,” he urged.  
I gently placed Marluxia’s roses down and took the teacup from his hand. I’ve always quite liked tea, maybe it was related to my own British background? I did lack a British accent though… As I tasted it, I smiled when I tasted the fragrant flavours inside that unusually merged with one another perfectly.  
“So what do you think?” Luxord asked expectantly as I placed the teacup back on the saucer.  
“With a bit of sugar, it’s perfect,” I replied meekly.  
“I still need to come up with a name,” he said “How about…Princess Xeann Tea?”  
Uh…come again? I stared at him blankly and he just grinned, sipping his tea. I eventually finished my cup and he took it away from me, disappearing into his room to clean up. I walked away slowly after picking Marluxia’s roses up. I carefully fingered the soft petals and stopped when I heard Demyx’s sitar.  
“Flowers are ashamed to bloom before her beauty,” he was singing “Only underneath the stars is her beauty at its greatest. The beautiful untamed princess whom we all know as Xeann of the Night.”  
He grinned at me with a light blush on his cheeks when I saw him by his room and stopped playing to kneel down and take my gloved hand, gently pecking the back of it.  
“For you,” he grinned at me.  
“Umm…Demyx, why are you acting weird?” I asked carefully.  
“How is this acting weird, Xeann?” Demyx asked curiously with the tilt of his head.  
“Um…the fact you have called me Xeann instead of Xe-Xe,” I raised an eyebrow.  
Demyx scoffed as he got back up to his feet.  
“That nickname makes me sound childish and immature,” he smiled at me.  
“Demyx…you are childish and immature,” I reminded him and stepped back cautiously.  
He just laughed and walked away, playing on his sitar merrily. I waited on the spot for another minute, scared to go any further. But then the thought of Saïx lecturing me for being late made me walk further down the corridor.  
“Hi there, princess!”  
I yelped as Axel came out of bloody nowhere and slung his arm around my shoulders.  
“Axel?” I whispered uncertainly as I saw he had a light blush across his cheeks.  
“Yup, that’s my name,” he said and began playing with my black hair “Guess you got it memorized good, huh?”  
“What…can I say?” I said slowly.  
“So, you reckon you’re going to get another mission to Hollow Bastion?” Axel asked as he half dragged me down the corridor.  
“Perhaps…” I replied.  
“You need an escort?” Axel offered “Because I’m your man!”  
His fingers began stroking my neck and I felt just a tad uncomfortable. I glanced at the roses in my hands and an idea sprung up to my head.  
“Axel,” I said as I stepped away from him “I need to take these back to my room but I’m already so late to get my mission from Saïx so…could you drop these back in my room for me please?”  
His emerald green eyes lit up happily and sparkled.  
“I’d be happy to!” he said as he took the roses from me “I’ll get a vase and fill it up with water for them too!”  
“You hate water…” I said uncertainly.  
“I’ll do anything for my princess,” Axel said and I swear his eyes got even more sparkly “Wait here and I’ll be right back!”  
As he dashed down the corridor, I sprinted up the stairs to reach the Grey Room. The original plan was to grab my mission and even if it was Hollow Bastion, I’ll stay in the world for the whole day and sneak back to the Castle when everyone’s asleep. Oh it would have been so easy if Saïx had been normal.  
“Sorry, I’m late,” I wheezed as I approached my mentor.  
“You don’t have to be sorry, Xeann.”  
The alarm bells immediately began ringing when I heard him use my name instead of my number. He turned around and smiled warmly at me with a light blush across his cheeks.  
“I’m giving you a day off today,” he said and I felt my cheeks go red when I saw how beautiful his smile was.  
In my stunned daze, I didn’t realise Saïx walking up to me and embracing me.  
“You looked so exhausted last night,” he whispered in my ear as I stiffened at the contact “You work so hard, Xeann. You deserve a day off.”  
“Thanks…?” I said warily as I stood still, waiting for him to get off me.  
“Xeann,” a voice said behind me and I felt a pair of small arms wrap around my waist.  
I craned my head and the alarm bells rung louder when I saw Zexion out of all people hugging me. He had a cute little blush on his face as he nuzzled me.  
“You smell good…” he purred, stretching the word good out a bit.  
“Thanks…I think…” I said slowly as I found myself trapped between the two most anti-social members of the Organization “You guys can stop hugging me now.”  
“Nuh uh,” Zexion mumbled childishly.  
“Get off her,” Saïx pushed Zexion’s head and Zexion whined.  
“No, find your own vampire that smells of apples and lemons,” the schemer scowled at the diviner.  
“I found her first,” Saïx growled and pushed Zexion a bit harder.  
Zexion began pushing back until their arms linked around me and they began pushing against each other. I carefully ducked out of their fight and quickly jogged away before they could notice I was gone. I admit, having a little attention was nice but only a little! I don’t want guys getting into a pointless fight about it… I grunted when I ran into a solid chest and looked up.  
“Oh, sorry, Lexaeus,” I smiled up at the Silent Hero “I didn’t see you there.”  
Suddenly, two massive hands grabbed me under my armpits and lifted me up so I was at Lexaeus’s eye level. I swallowed uneasily when I saw a faint blush across his cheeks.  
“…”  
“…”  
“…”  
“…Lexaeus?”  
I made out a choking sound when Lexaeus suddenly pulled me into a bone crushing hug.  
“Lexaeus!” I choked as he rubbed his cheek against my head “Lexaeus, you’re hurting me…argh…”  
“Lexaeus, you heard her, put her down.”  
I wheezed as Lexaeus dropped me and I landed on the floor, catching my breath. I opened my eyes and saw Xaldin towering over me with a plate. I felt my stomach churn when I saw that he had a light blush decorating his cheeks.  
“Hi…Xaldin…” I greeted him.  
“Xeann, I brought you some cake,” Xaldin smiled as he helped me up and showed me the plate that had a slice of chocolate cake with a fork sticking out of it “I made it yesterday as dessert for everyone at dinner but you never eat with us.”  
“Um…thanks, Xaldin, but I can’t eat it…” I said as I stepped back “I’m sure it’s really delicious though.”  
“Just one slice,” Xaldin insisted as he stepped towards me “It’s not fattening at all.”  
“Umm…if it’s just one slice…”  
I took the fork and began eating it. Xaldin watched me and I smiled at him.  
“It’s delicious!”  
Truth to be told, it was heavenly. I haven’t had chocolate for three to four years and I had been craving it so much. Xaldin stopped me halfway and rubbed his thumb against the corner of my lips.  
“You’re a messy eater, aren’t you?” he smiled and licked the crumbs off his thumb that he had just wiped away.  
I smiled sheepishly and Lexaeus took the fork away from me. He began spooning the rest of the cake into my mouth until it was gone. I handed the fork and plate back to Xaldin and stepped away.  
“Thank you, that was very nice,” I smiled warmly to them.  
I gulped nervously when I saw their eyes sparkle.  
“I have more treats in the kitchen for you to try,” Xaldin said and I shook my head frantically.  
“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly have any more,” I said and began walking away from them backwards “I could gain a lot of weight…”  
“I’m sure you’ll work it off in no time,” Xaldin kept talking “After all, you work so hard,”  
“Yes…and because I work so hard, I’m going to go to my room and have a shower,” I said quickly and began jogging down the stairs.  
I sighed as they didn’t follow me and wandered down the corridor massaging my temples.  
“Well hello, beautiful.”  
NO!!! NOT XIGBAR TOO!!! I yelped sharply as Xigbar appeared in front of me upside down and he grinned with a light blush across his cheeks.   
“So I hear Scar Face gave you the day off,” he drawled as I stepped back cautiously.  
“Yes and I’m going to spend it catching up on some sleep!” I said quickly and ran down the corridor, diving into my room and slamming the door shut.  
I leaned against the double doors, catching my breath while staring ahead blankly.  
“What the hell is going on?” I muttered and sighed, taking my coat off “That’s it, I’m just going to take a long shower and go to sleep, this must be some weird dream…”  
That should have been the end of it. I let my clothes litter the floor and got into the shower in my bathroom, sighing in relief as I felt the warm water fall on top of me. I began to sing as I usually did and sighed as I washed and rinsed my hair. I froze up when I felt watery hands on my shoulders.  
“Would you like me to clean your back?”  
“KYA!!!”  
I shot out of the shower, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my body, shooting out of the bathroom and staring at the bathroom with alarmed eyes.  
“Demyx!” I shrieked at him as he came in with just his trousers “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”  
“I thought you would have liked it if one of my clones helped you get clean,” Demyx smiled warmly with sparkling eyes.  
“It’s creepy! It’s perverted!” I shouted at him.  
He pulled a kicked puppy face,  
“But I was only helping…” he muttered as the sparkling eyes faded away.  
“Oh, Xeann,” Marluxia sung as he came into my room with a daisy chain around his neck and another in his hands “I made you a little something!”  
I stood awkwardly in the middle of my bedroom, in nothing but a towel, looking back and forth between them, trying to think of an escape.  
“No fair, Marly, I was here first!” Demyx shouted but Marluxia ignored him.  
“Oh, are you going to bathe?” he took notice of my state of dress and ignored the fact that I was sopping wet “Well why don’t I start a nice bath for you? Do you prefer lavender or rose?”  
“Uh…uh…”  
I was honestly speechless at the proposal.  
“Hey, I was helping her in the shower!” Demyx whined.  
“Then whilst you relax, I can give you a nice back rub,” Marluxia’s blue eyes began sparkling.  
“No…thanks…I’m…fine…” I managed to say as I felt overwhelmed by the both of them “Umm…can you get out of my room now please?”  
“You heard her,” Marluxia said to Demyx immediately and pointed to the door “Out.”  
“No, she was talking to you!” Demyx said as he marched up to Marluxia.  
“Oh, I believe she was talking to you,” Marluxia summoned Graceful Dahlia.  
“Nuh uh!” Demyx summoned his Arpeggio.  
“Guys, guys, put them away!” I said quickly, not really comfortable in having a fight happen in my bedroom.  
They ignored me and one swipe of Graceful Dahlia had me running away without thinking. I ran blindly, leaving a trail of water in the corridors and ended up hiding in the kitchen. Boy was that a huge mistake.  
“Xeann!” Xaldin jumped and I yelped in shock when I saw him cutting carrots.  
Awkward silence hung over the white kitchen and I swallowed heavily.  
“Xaldin…” I greeted “Sorry, I didn’t know you were here…”  
“If this is you making a move then I’d prefer it if we went to my room,” Xaldin said as he placed his knife down.  
WHAT?! I then realised my state of attire and shook my head frantically.  
“No!” I said “No, this isn’t what it looks like!”  
“Dear me, princess,” Luxord entered the kitchen “Look at you, you’ll catch a cold if you wander around like that!”  
“I’m just taking her to my room so she can get dry and slip on one of my coats,” Xaldin said as he hung his apron up.  
“Oh dear, Xaldin, the lady will be too small to fit into your coats! I think it’d be best if I take her to my room where I can warm her up with some freshly brewed tea.”  
They soon ended up arguing and I quickly slipped out of the kitchen, determined to head back to my room and get some clothes on. I didn’t realise that the kitchen had been far away from my room though.  
“Hey there, sexy lady!” came a wolf whistle which made the hair at the back of my neck stand up.  
I looked up to see Xigbar standing on the ceiling, ogling me like the dirty pervert he was.  
“Damn, I didn’t know your coat was hiding those watermelons of yours,” he grinned, making me blush blazingly.  
“They’re not that big!” I shouted at him and marched off.  
“Hey, whoa, wait,” Xigbar landed behind me and grinned “Why don’t I take you to my room to get dressed? It’s much closer.”  
“I’m fine,” I said and began walking more briskly.  
“C’mon!” Xigbar began chasing me.  
“NO!” I shouted at him and ran as fast as I could, eventually using the shadows to hide in when I realised he’d been tracking me through the trail of water I was leaving behind.   
My hair was very thick and long so it pretty much soaks water up like a sponge. I swear, by the time I got to my bedroom, all of the castle floors were wet. When Xigbar had lost me, I sighed in relief quietly, sitting down in the shadows and shivering from the cold water that clung onto my body.  
“Why, princess,” a voice from the dark said “You look like you’re freezing.”  
There was a snap and from the dark came Axel with a fireball in the palm of his hand. He put an arm around my shoulders and huddled me close to him.  
“Why don’t I warm you up a bit?” he waggled his eyebrows suggestively “My room isn’t that far away.”  
“No…thanks…” I grinned anxiously and shuffled away “I’m sure I’m not that far away from my room now so I’ll just go and change in there.”  
Actually, I hadn’t the foggiest idea where I was. Despite that, Axel smiled.  
“Well, why don’t I come with you to warm you up before you get dressed?” he suggested with a grin.  
“Um…”  
“Why don’t you leave her alone?”  
I yelped in surprise when Xion and Roxas seemingly popped out of the blue.  
“We’ll take you to your room, Xeann,” Roxas smiled at me with bright sparkly blue eyes  
“Yes, we’ll keep you safe,” Xion nodded.  
“Um…hey, you guys are working so hard to look after me…”  
I look at the three of them uncertainly.  
“Uh…go to Twilight Town and celebrate with some sea salt ice cream!” I said and ran away.  
Thankfully they didn’t chase after me so I took a moment to regain my bearings and realise I had gotten even further away from my room. Everything was going so well with my quest to return but then I ran into Lexaeus.  
“Oh, sorry, Lexaeus!” I said and grinned sheepishly “I didn’t see you there!”  
“…”  
“…”  
“…”  
“…Well I need to get to my room…nya!”  
I yelped as Lexaeus picked me up and swung me over his shoulder.  
“What the hell?” I muttered and struggled in his hold “Hey, put me down!”  
Suddenly his whole body went stiff and fell heavily onto the floor. I looked at him with wide alarmed eyes.  
“Lexaeus?” I poked him carefully.  
“Don’t worry your pretty head, princess,” Larxene landed on top of Lexaeus and helped me up “He’ll be awake in a couple of hours.”  
“Oh…OK…” I said slowly as I looked at the twitching body.  
“Hey, let’s go to my room so we can get you some clothes!” Larxene grinned and grabbed my hand, dragging me alongside her.  
“Um…sure,” I smiled uncertainly.  
“Perhaps we can have a girls’ day out!” she suddenly proposed with a wider grin “We can do makeovers, go clothes shopping, hey, how about an experimental lesbian relationship?”  
I was gone when she said the word lesbian. Hey, I did swing that way but there was no fucking way I would try that with a woman who nearly made my hair go fuzzy and frizzy and turn into an afro. Really, it should have all ended when I finally found my room and dove straight into it. But oh no, it wasn’t my room. It was a fucking illusion.  
“I thought you’d come in here, Xeann,” an innocent looking Zexion suddenly appeared right in front of me, breaking the illusion.  
He tackled me into another hug before I could react.  
“Mmm…you still smell good,” he sighed as I stood still, looking at how he was comfortably resting his head on my bosom “Do I detect a bit of cinnamon?”  
“Zexion…I need to get back to my room,” I said but he ignored me, just nuzzling me.  
“Mmm…”  
I jolted when his fingers grabbed onto the edge of my towel and slid it down. I backhanded him so hard that he fell as the towel fell around my ankles and I ran, faster than I had ever gone in my life. I finally reached my bedroom, my real bedroom that is, slammed the doors, locked and barricaded them. I did a thorough check around my bedroom and sighed in relief when I realised that there was no-one around. There were remnants of water from Demyx’s attacks and a distinct smell of flowers lingering in the room from Marluxia’s attacks. I fell onto my bed and closed my eyes, wishing myself to sleep. That really should have been the end of it, I really can’t stress that enough. But apparently my thorough check wasn’t thorough enough. I felt arms wrapping themselves around my naked body, pulling me into another naked body.  
“Rrrr…” came a playful growl and I snapped my eyes open.  
I turned my head and I really can’t describe how loud I had screamed when I realised that Saïx was in my bed with me, naked.  
“What are you doing here?!” I shrieked as I pulled the blankets up to cover myself.  
Saïx just nuzzled me and laid his head on my lap, looking up at me like a cute little puppy. I will only ever admit this once but he’s kind of sexy when he looks submissive. I watched as he looked up at me expectantly and I blushed.  
“Saïx, this is really inappropriate,” I stated blankly.  
“No-one has to know,” he winked and I blushed more.  
“Um…uh…Saïx, I’m really stressed out,” I rolled my shoulders in an exaggerated way “Could you go out and buy some massage oil to help relax me?”  
“Certainly.”  
I looked away pointedly when he got up and disappeared into a Dark Corridor. I ran to my wardrobe, grabbed a shirt and shorts and ran out of my bedroom, thinking of anywhere that I could hide without anyone finding me. I couldn’t stay merged in the shadows all day; that takes up a lot of energy and even more stress on my body. I decided to head to the Grey Area and summon a Dark Corridor to a random world where I could hide in. So I carefully tiptoed into the Grey Room…  
“XVI, could you explain to me why there is water everywhere?”  
I swear I screamed so loud that my lungs nearly burst with their overuse. I turned around and pressed myself to the window behind me, my dead heart racing when I saw Xemnas. Oh god NO! Not the fucking Superior too! Anyone but the Superior, just anyone!! I stared at him, hyperventilating and he just raised an eyebrow. Out of amusement or disapproval I frankly had no idea.  
“Is something the matter?” he asked and I felt relief wash over me.  
“Thank god!” I cried and lunged for him, Superior or not, and hugged him “Someone is still sane and normal in this castle!”  
“XVI, unhand me this instant!”  
I stepped away and breathed for air, leaning on the sofa behind me.  
“Now, what is going on?” he asked with a confused frown.  
“Everyone’s being nice to me!” I shouted and waved my arms about “Even Larxene, Larxene, is being nice to me! Heck, Marluxia said that my eyes and lips were redder than his roses! Can you believe that?! And they’ve been really creepy at the same time! Demyx had his water clone join me in the shower while Zexion, Zexion, has been hugging me! Hugging me!!! And then there’s your second in command appearing in my bed naked! Absolutely stark naked!”  
“XVI, please, calm yourself,” the Superior gripped my wrists tightly to stop me waving my arms about as I began hyperventilating again “Now, when did this all start?”  
“This…morning…” I wheezed as I tried to regain my breath.  
“Xeann?”  
I squeaked and hid behind Xemnas as the Grey Area was suddenly swarmed with the Organization members. Xemnas did absolutely nothing as they all asked if I was alright and other multiple questions that began making my head hurt. Then a lot of fights broke out and I looked at them with alarmed eyes.  
“Will you stop it?!” I suddenly bellowed at them “Don’t you all have missions to do or something?!”  
The Grey Area went silent at my voice and weapons were lowered as lots of pairs of sparkly eyes looked in my direction. Gaining my breath, I swallowed uncertainly.  
“Um…why are you guys being so nice?” I asked cautiously, still hiding behind Xemnas.  
“Because you’re our princess,” they all chirruped at the same time and I balked at their answer.   
I took one look at Xemnas’s face and huffed when I saw how amused he seemed to be at the situation. I cleared my throat.  
“Well…Princess here needs space,” I muttered while folding my arms “So why don’t you leave the castle and…I don’t know, go catch an Emerald Serenade or something.”  
They all agreed in their individual ways and disappeared into different Dark Corridors. Axel and Saïx came by me before they left, giving me some sea salt ice cream and the massage oil I had asked for earlier to get rid of Saïx. With a tired sigh, I collapsed onto the sofa.  
“What the fuck is going on in their heads?” I mumbled.  
“What was all the noise about?” Vexen asked grumpily as he came into the Grey Area finally.  
I immediately hid behind Xemnas again, shivering and closing my eyes fearfully. Xemnas folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at Vexen.  
“Vexen, I suppose you could try to explain everyone’s behaviour today?” he asked.  
“What behaviour?” the academic asked moodily.  
“It seems everyone has a sudden infatuation over XVI.”  
“Oh, so it worked then.”  
I froze and looked at Vexen with narrowed eyes.  
“What do you mean ‘it worked’?” I asked suspiciously.  
“I was experimenting to see if a beauty potion would have any effect on a vampire, because they are designed to look flawless to lure their prey, and it seems it did,” Vexen said dismissively.  
“Even with a beauty potion, I highly doubt everyone would suddenly have a crush on, wait how did you even get me to drink a beauty potion anyway…”  
Vexen remained silent as the cogs in my brain turned slowly and I suddenly remembered.  
“You spiked my dinner!” I shrieked at him “Ew, that’s just betraying my trust completely!”  
“Oh calm down, girl, I put mild love potions in the dinner for the Organization members too so I could see clear results,” Vexen muttered and waved me off.  
“How is that even a fair test?!” I shrieked at him.  
“Superior, may I ask if XVI looks any different from normal?” Vexen asked.  
Xemnas looked down at me with a scrutinizing gaze.  
“I admit, she looks sufficiently more radiant than when I first met her,” he admitted and I fumed.  
“Again, still not a fair test,” I muttered “I could easily have worked hard to look this beautiful during the time you last saw me until now.”  
“Oh please stop whining,” Vexen grumbled.  
“Stop whining?!” I screamed at him and pulled my curved blades out.  
My eyes burned red and my fangs grew.  
“You’d better run for your life, you dirty old man!” I roared and began chasing him through the castle “Everyone was acting so creepy today! I could have been raped today! RAPED!!!! Larxene, LARXENE, wanted to experiment having a fucking lesbian relationship! Demyx, DEMYX, had his fucking water clone jump into the shower with me! Zexion, ZEXION, was hugging me and he pulled my towel off me! Xigbar, XIGBAR, the old letch wanted to fucking grope my breasts! And Saïx! SAÏX!!! He got into my bed naked! NAKED!!!”   
“They’ll all be back to normal tomorrow morning!” Vexen called over his shoulder as he ran surprisingly fast for an old scientist.  
“You want to know what really pisses me off the most?!” I shouted at him “That you had the nerve to spike that Scarlet Tango with a beauty potion! I’m insulted, am I not beautiful enough without a stupid fucking beauty potion?!”  
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m not attracted to you whilst the potion is working!”  
“Oh, so I’m not even beautiful enough to attract a creepy pervert like you with a beauty potion in effect?!”  
I chased him for hours on end until I felt my legs go numb. I then began hearing voices and retreated to my room to get some well-earned rest. The annoying thing is, because the blood was spiked with the beauty potion, I couldn’t flush it out of my system like normal human beings. No, it would take much longer for the blood I consumed to dull out along with the potion until I needed another feed. So this was how the next morning went:  
“Hello, Xeann,” Xion smiled as she and Roxas walked past me when I came out of my room.  
“Looking great today, Xeann,” Roxas waved shyly.  
I smiled, relieved that their ‘mild’ love potions had worn off.  
“Hmm…you’re skin’s looking shinier than usual,” Larxene commented snidely when I passed her “How many can you take at once? Or have you been going on all night, trying to set a new record?”  
I fumed silently and strode past her.  
“Your eyes seem brighter than usual,” Marluxia commented as I walked past him “Still not as red as my roses though.”  
I smiled to myself. At least they couldn’t remember what had happened yesterday.  
“Morning, Xeann,” Luxord greeted as I walked past him “Your hair looks nice today.”  
“Thank you,” I said with a warm smile.  
“Hey, Xe-Xe!” Demyx ran up to me and walked alongside me “Hm, your nose looks cuter than usual.”  
“Hey!” I laughed as he pinched it cheekily and hit his hand away.  
“Well good morning, princess and her jester,” Axel smirked as we passed him.  
“Hey!” Demyx pouted as Axel ruffled my hair.  
“Hm? Your hair feels softer than usual,” Axel complimented with a cheeky grin.  
“You’re a Nobody, you can’t feel,” I stuck my tongue at him and giggled, running up the stairs with them trailing after me.  
“Xe, I mean, XVI,” Saïx said as I reached him to take my mission “You’re to go to Hollow Bastion, your last mission was unsatisfactory.”  
“Aw, what?” I moaned and glared at the mission card.  
“I’ll go with her,” Axel offered.  
“No, VIII, you’re going to Never Land with Roxas to eliminate the Emerald Serenade there,” Saïx planted a card in his hand.  
“Aw, man,” Axel mumbled “Well at least I’m with Roxas. Sorry, Xeann.”  
I sighed in disappointment as Demyx was given his mission. I looked at the hand that went on my shoulder.  
“Don’t work too hard,” my eyes widened as I saw Saïx give a rare smile to me before leaving the Grey Area.  
I found myself blushing softly and lifted my head when I heard footsteps.  
“Oh, it’s you,” Zexion greeted and hummed “That’s funny. You smell of roses today instead of apples.”  
“Umm…thanks,” I smiled at him with a shrug.  
I decided that I wanted to prepare better than last time for the mission. I walked past Xaldin and Lexaeus and gave them a wave. They waved back and smiled.  
“Your face seems to light up when you smile,” Xaldin said “An odd trait for a vampire.”  
I shrugged and giggled whilst going over to my room. After making sure I had enough fire and blizzard spells with my Champion Gear installed into my weapons, I decided to head off to Hollow Bastion.  
“So, off to Hollow Bastion today as well, eh?” Xigbar appeared behind me “Well, better not get that pretty face of yours marred.”  
“I won’t,” I stuck my tongue out at him and walked into the Dark Corridor in front of me.  
I immediately began running through the streets, being on the lookout for Heartless. Then suddenly, a whole swarm of Shadows came streaming after me. I got my blades out and grew my fangs, lunging out to strike at the first one. Then it began. I stopped when the first Shadow jumped onto me and landed on my bosom. It then hugged me. Hugged me. I froze, frowning down at it in confusion as more Shadows hugged my feet, nuzzling me happily.   
“Wait, beauty potions have the effect on Heartless too?” I whispered and suddenly got very scared.  
“Ah, good morning, my princess.”  
Oh hell. I turned my head and saw Sephiroth land behind me, Masamune out and ready to chop me up.  
“Mmm…” he licked his lips “You’re looking rather radiant today.”  
Shit.


	2. Why I hate Sephiroth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My many encounters with the one winged angel

You probably all know from my last entry that I hate going to Hollow Bastion for my missions because of Sephiroth. I can never escape him unless he has at least one fight with me. It’s so annoying! He’s too strong for me and I don’t get why he’s so fascinated about me! Ugh, anyway, here are the encounters I’ve had with him.  
*************************************************************  
Ow…ow…OW! I relaxed on a nearby bench rubbing the back of my neck. That Solid Armour was not one that you should mess with. I sighed in frustration as I pushed back a strand of ebony hair into my hood. At least it’s gone now. I’d better rest up before preparing a report for Saïx…  
“Well, well, what do we have here?”  
I froze at the sound of a velvety voice piercing the air. I glanced up slowly to see a tall man with long flowing silver hair and catlike jade eyes dressed in a black coat. I tilted my head at the long single extended navy blue wing then at the two hip wings that rested underneath his coat. I could say he must be an angel but he was too eerie looking. Either way…I got caught in the middle of a mission. Not good. He cocked his head to one side as he studied me.  
“You’re part of the Organization of Nobodies,” he stated.  
Busted. I felt wisps of shadow latch onto me as I prepared my escape. But the man noticed my actions and grabbed my wrist harshly. I was hauled to my feet without much effort by the looks of it. The shadows faded away as he peered into my hood.  
“Interesting,” he commented.  
He yanked my hood down. I shifted uncomfortably as I tried to wrench myself out of his grip. I was forced to look into his emerald eyes. My vampire instincts jumped into action. My eyes flashed angrily as I bared my fangs to try and back off my attacker. It only earned a smirk.  
“Very intriguing,” he said cupping my chin “You’re not a Nobody are you?”  
I withdrew my fangs but kept my eyes alight. The man smirked more.  
“A beast in human form,” he hissed quietly “I didn’t know such a creature existed.”  
I scowled and resumed to tug myself free. By now, if this was an ordinary person I would have bitten them. But this person didn’t seem right. Who knows what would happen if I drank his blood? It could be poisoned for all I can tell. I slammed my foot down on his foot. He hissed in pain, recoiling and letting me go. I ran off, throwing my hood up as I fled. I was halted at the sound of clothing tearing. I looked down to see a light blue blade grazing my side and piercing my cloak. What? I turned to see the man holding out the blade with his hand, that smirk plastered back on his face. Wait, what? I blinked and looked at the length of the blade. That is so surreal! My opponent chuckled confidently.  
“What’s wrong?” he asked “Never seen a Masamune before?”  
Masa what? I flinched as the blade rode up, tearing the cloth off the side and the top part of the sleeve of the cloak. Blood oozed out of the graze as I turned, holding my wound on the top of my arm. If this guy wanted a fight, then I’ll give him a fight. After tending my wound with some saliva, vampire saliva heals up minor wounds, I summoned my blades and charged towards the three winged man. My black blades came into contact with his sky blue one. I fell to one knee, surpassing his weight applied onto his attack.  
“Show me your strength, vampire,” he taunted leering over me.  
My legs trembled as I started to push back.  
“That’s enough.”  
Eh? I gasped as I was pushed back several paces, the blade tearing through my cloak again. I stumbled back as my hood fell off and examined the damage of my cloak. Patches of the cloak scattered my feet as the rest that remained on me were reduced to shreds. Not to mention I had several cuts tattooing my arms, legs and one thin cut that had pierced through to my belly. I shrugged it off, leaving me in my black tank top, black leggings, black fingerless gloves and black high heel boots. I got into a battle stance once more, free from the heavy garment. As he charged at me, I felt the shadows pull me down. I looked up from the ground waiting for the man to be in the right position. I was jetted out, blades across my chest and at the man. He spotted me for a split second and blocked my attack just barely. I landed on my feet, using all my strength to push him back.  
“Impressive.”  
I glared into his cold green eyes as he smirked.  
“You can handle the darkness well,” he said “Not many can. I congratulate you.”  
I gasped as he attacked me with a great amount of force. I crashed into the wall, feeling my body cry out in pain. I bit my lip, refusing to show any signs of weakness. I flinched inwardly as the tip of the blade was in front of my nose.  
“Alas,” he continued “You aren’t strong enough to wield it properly.”  
My eyes gleamed at him angrily. I slowly pushed myself up, using the wall behind as my support.   
“You stubborn creature,” he hissed “Surely you can’t fight any longer.”  
I glared at him furiously as my blades dispersed into shadows. I looked at my hands in disbelief.  
“You cannot fight with the shadows if you have used every ounce of your strength,” my opponent explained “How annoying; I was hoping to have much more fun than this.”  
I’ve used every ounce of my strength? Come to mention it… I swayed slightly, my eyelids drooping. No… I managed to surpass a yawn but that alone proved the man right. He smirked as he raised his blade. I slowly closed my eyes, awaiting my fate. This was it then…  
“Sephiroth!”  
I winced at the sound of blades clashing. Slowly I opened my eyes to see the silver haired man engaged in a battle against a young man with blonde spiky hair.  
“Cloud,” the one winged man stated “So you have come.”  
I saw this as my chance to escape. I couldn’t summon a portal but I could always find the one that was open for me. I slowly limped away from the scene.  
****************************************************************  
I only got Sephiroth’s name that time. I hoped to never see him again but I was still too scared to go back. Even after I trained so hard, I was just so scared…  
*******************************************************************  
I gasped as I was pushed back by the Samurai Nobodies. I growled as I gripped my blades. I felt myself breathe hard. I had to improve my endurance. It was absolutely compulsory that I had to because I didn’t want another near-death experience. I looked up at Roxas.  
“More!” I barked “Send more of your Samurai!”  
Roxas hesitated then nodded while holding out an arm. I twirled my blades as the number of Samurai doubled. I shouted out a battle cry as I drove my blades through them. Only one faded away, the others thrown aside. I swayed slightly, shaking my head to push back any form of fatigue. I needed to last at least another fifteen minutes for this training session. I had to push my limit. I must complete this training session! No excuses! I jumped up to avoid more attacks from the Samurai and spun round to fall and slice them. My eyes widened as my blades faded into darkness. No! I recovered almost perfectly, flipping over to stomp on my opponents and land behind them. I turned to face them and switched to a combat position.  
“Xeann…”  
“Keep them coming, Roxas!” I shouted charging at the Samurai unarmed “Fourteen more minutes!”  
I wrestled one Samurai as the others lunged for me. I was completely swarmed and outnumbered. But I couldn’t give up, I can’t give up, I need to keep on going. I crouched down underneath the pile, my muscles begging for rest. But I needed to extend my time with the shadows. My eyes burned red as I threw the Samurai off with a new energy. They lay scattered around me, fading one by one. I looked up at the stunned Keyblade wielder.  
“More!” I demanded “Triple the amount!”  
Roxas looked down at me.  
“But…”  
My eyes flashed at him.  
“I’m doing just fine!” I said “Now send more before I demand quadruple!”   
Roxas shifted before raising his hand. Several more Samurai appeared around me. I jumped up to avoid their cluster of attacks. I felt something new and refreshingly dark surround me. I hugged myself into a ball as this feeling washed over me. I suddenly didn’t feel fatigue or pain anymore. I felt…original. Like I had been miraculously been healed from head to toe. Something hard and cold clung onto my body. …Metal. It was metal that was clinging onto my body. Every inch of skin other than my face and neck was in contact with metal. My eyes were closed as I relished in this different feeling. I opened my fists as shadows tingled my metal coated hands. They clutched onto two handles…like swords. I opened my eyes as I landed on the platform with a metal CLUNK. I blinked at the several Nobodies and glanced at my weapons. They were quite large but they were quite light. They were much longer than my original blades and of course they were black with a hint of blue and purple. I smirked as I tested them out. It was then I felt my body was quite heavy. I glanced down to see black armour. That’s what that metal feeling was then. I got into a battle position then within a burst of darkness and energy, my swords ran through the cluster of opponents, destroying each and every one of them. I smiled. This must be a sort of Limit Break like Saïx’s Berserker Mode. Boy, did I nearly get thrashed about by him on one unfortunate mission… I looked up to Roxas.  
“More!”  
“No.”  
My head turned to see Saïx standing on the opposite balcony, arms folded, and his eyes narrowing down at me.  
“Enough,” he said sternly.  
“But I have at least another twelve minutes!” I protested “My training session…”  
“Has been cut short.”  
I glared at Saïx as I felt the metal evaporate from my body.  
“You need rest,” he said calmly.  
And as if it had been a command, I blacked out.  
**************************************************  
Then it wasn’t too long until I got another mission to go to Hollow Bastion.  
********************************************************************  
I glanced at my mission description. Hollow Bastion. Oh no…  
“Uh, Saïx…” I said opening my mouth to object.  
I looked up to see no-one. No…I couldn’t surely… I winced at the memory of that man’s attacks. I scanned the mission once more. Deserters? Get rid of all of them? No, no, no, NO!!!  
“Saïx!” I shouted running down the corridors.  
I screeched to a halt and looked around frantically.  
“Bad timing,” said Axel coming past “He’s just gone on his mission. What’s wrong?”  
I held up my mission card, looking down at the floor defeated. Axel took it and looked at it.  
“Ah, Deserters,” he said “Nasty little things…”  
“Look at the location,” I growled.  
Axel muttered location then raised an eyebrow.  
“Hollow Bastion? What’s so bad about…oh…”  
He looked down at me.  
“You want me to go with you?” he offered.  
“Will you?!” I exclaimed looking up at him hopefully.  
“Sure!”  
Axel smiled as he tossed his own mission description over his shoulder.  
“I can do recon some other time,” he said mocking a bow “My princess comes first.”  
“How long are you going to mock my title?” I asked quirking an eyebrow.  
Axel grinned as he kissed my gloved hand. I slapped him in annoyance.  
“Ow! OK, OK, let’s go!”  
******************************  
And it went oh so well until the end…  
*************************************************  
I let my breath out as we got to the portal.  
“Right…” sighed Axel rubbing the back of his head “Just say the word whenever you’re sent to Hollow Bastion, princess. I’ll be your loyal bodyguard.”  
I giggled as he bowed to me.  
“Really, Axel,” I said shaking my head “You don’t have to treat me like a princess…”  
“But it’s fun…” said Axel standing up with a pout.  
I beamed as the portal opened out. Axel took my hand and led me through. But as soon as he was in, a blade cut through our hands, making us let go. I stumbled back with a startled gasp as the one winged man landed in front of me.  
“Y-You…” I whispered, my back hitting the wall behind me.  
The portal closed up behind the silver haired man as he cocked his head to one side with an arrogant smirk.  
“Going already?” he asked unsheathing his…um…Masamune “I was hoping you would stick around to play…”  
I plunged my hand into the wall behind me letting the shadows pull me through to escape this man. I fell into the room still in shadow form and darted out of the door, fleeing. I summoned a portal ahead of me to dash through but two boots were slammed into my back. I was forced to be brought up onto the stone floor as the portal vanished. I turned my head to see him leering over me, one foot holding me in place.  
“Who are you?” I asked “What do you want with me?”  
That spine-chilling smirk spread across his features as he applied more pressure in his foot.  
“Sephiroth,” he said as I bit my lip to avoid my cries of anguish escape me “that’s my name. And you know Cloud? He can get boring from time to time. I need a…variety of toys to keep me entertained.”  
I tensed as my eyes flashed angrily.  
“I refuse to be a plaything to you,” I growled as I pushed my body upwards, sending him flying.  
Sephiroth gained his balance in mid-air as I ran off. I summoned another portal, desperate to get back to the castle where I was safe. There was a silver blur and Sephiroth was blocking the entrance of the portal, his Masamune at the ready for a battle.  
“Leaving so soon?” he asked as I halted.  
I stepped back slightly. I wasn’t ready to fight him. My endurance hasn’t improved much other than the time I transformed into my Ultimate Form…wait! That’s it! I raised my arms and summoned my blades. Sephiroth smirked as I got into a battle stance.  
“Ready when you are, princess,” he hissed stretching out the word princess.  
That got my anger to the maximum. I was jetted out towards him, the portal closing as I attacked. Sephiroth blocked my attack, angling his blade so he could look at my face. I managed a terrific roar whilst pushing Sephiroth back a few paces and charging at him, blades ready to rip through material. Sephiroth blocked my attacks then swiped at my feet. I jumped, front-flipped over him and landed behind, spinning round to block the next attack. He broke through my defence and let the blade cut through my coat and across my stomach. I stumbled back, fell to one knee, and then crossed my blades over to block the next attack. My arms quivered with the pressure until I broke through, sending a kick into his chest to drive him back. He stumbled back but quickly regained his stance and smirked.  
“That’s right,” he said beckoning for me “Let anger course through you. Let your instincts guide you, Xeann.”  
Confusion flooded through me as he said my name.  
“What?”  
I gasped, jumping back and blocking another attack.  
“And stay focused on the battle,” he said as I pushed back slightly.  
I grunted as I stepped forward, not letting my guard down. My eyes widened as my blades started to quiver and fade away.  
“No! Ah!”  
I caught the blade with my gloved hands that grazed my face. Sephiroth smirked.  
“Tired already?” he mocked “How weak.”  
It was my turn to smirk. Sephiroth’s sneer was quickly wiped off.  
“May I ask what you’re smiling at, vampire?” he asked as I closed my eyes.  
“I’ve been doing a bit of training, thanks to my friend you talked about,” I said.  
I threw him off with a new energy that shocked my systems. My body was washed by that dark and new feeling as all the fatigue from my muscles faded away. The metal clung onto my body as I sighed blissfully, hugging myself. My eyes opened as I withdrew my arms and opened my hands. My swords appeared in my hands as I landed on the ground with a CLUNK. I looked up at Sephiroth who looked slightly startled but smirked.  
“An interesting development, I must say,” he said as I twirled my swords and fell into a battle stance.  
I glared at him, before letting my instincts take over. I closed my eyes…  
“Gah!”  
As I opened them, I was behind Sephiroth who held his newly made wound on his chest. He glared at me before swinging his Masamune at me. It landed on my hip but drove me into the fountain with a SPLASH. I jumped out almost immediately, driving my swords towards him. Sephiroth jumped and went into flight. I narrowed my eyes at him as I summoned shadows to coil round my torso and act like wings. Eagle wings guided me through the air as I lunged at Sephiroth. Our blades clashed as our faces came close.  
“So tempting,” chuckled Sephiroth and my eyes flashed angrily.  
My eyes widened as I was thrown into the stone slabs, leaving a crater around my body. Sephiroth landed beside me, the tip of his sword at my neck.  
“Isn’t it about time,” he asked, his eyes glinting with victory “that you should…rest, vampire?”  
Rest…sounded great. I whimpered in defeat as the metal evaporated off my body and I blacked out.  
**********************************************************************************************************************  
Frankly, I have no idea how I ended up back at the castle. I guess Axel came back and dragged my unconscious body over. That was the only battle that had me blacking out at Hollow Bastion. But soon enough, I realised Sephiroth had begun stalking me.  
**************************************************************************************  
I sat by the Station Tower, looking out at Twilight Town in the beauty of the night. It had been so long since I’ve seen my home world encased in night, it was just so beautiful… I smiled my body relaxing as I bit into my sea-salt ice cream. I loved coming up here when I was a human, it was where I could just let my troubles fly away. The wind made my hair dance as I looked up to the stars. Nothing could ruin this moment…  
“Well, well,” a silky voice pierced the silence “We meet again, Xeann.”  
Um…let me rephrase my last sentence. Almost nothing could ruin the moment. I turned to see Sephiroth on top of the tower. Come on already! Why is he here instead of Hollow Bastion?  
“What are you doing here, Sephiroth?” I snarled “This is my territory, you bastard.”  
Sephiroth smirked as he landed beside me. I shifted to flee but he grabbed my wrist that was holding my ice cream. He took a large bite of the salty sweet, gripping my wrist tightly. After finishing his mouthful, he licked his lips and looked up at me.  
“I didn’t know beasts liked sweet food,” he said with a smirk.  
I narrowed my eyes at him.  
“Neither did I,” I growled.  
I shoved the ice cream into his face and rounded a punch into his cheek. Sephiroth’s grip loosened and I was free from his grasp. Fighting my instincts to battle him, (well he did enter my territory) I fled from the angered angel. I summoned a portal but I was suddenly slammed into the wall before I could run through. I hissed in pain as my arm was twisted behind my back painfully.  
“You little minx,” growled Sephiroth’s voice by my ear.  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him lick his now turquoise lips.  
“But thanks for the little treat,” he added with a smirk.  
I was roughly flipped over as he wiped the rest of the ice cream off his face. I flinched as he produced a knife and bared my teeth warningly.  
“Now, now,” hissed Sephiroth “Play nice, vampire.”  
I reluctantly withdrew my fangs and closed my eyes. I winced as the cold metal cut my cheek. After what seemed like long painful, agonizing minutes, the blade left and a thumb was pressed into my searing red cheek.  
“Perfect,” whispered Sephiroth.  
I opened my eyes to look at him. He stared hard into my eyes and pressed the bloodied dagger into my stomach.  
“No saliva,” he said.  
He tugged at my hair hard and I submissively nodded my head. I relaxed as his cold unforgiving form stepped back.  
“You may leave.”  
And I happily obliged, stepping back into the portal behind me.  
********************************************************************  
It was so humiliating! How could I let him carve his name into my cheek like that?! I refused to lower my hood for the day after until Demyx grabbed me and pulled it down for me. He healed the damage up despite my protests and even sung a little duet for me to join in to cheer me up. It worked, singing my troubles away was the best way to get me happy again. Little did I know, my troubles would come back and bit me right in the ass.  
***************************************************************************************  
My temporary shadow clones were perfect to mould into some of my favourite animals. Yeah, despite killing lots of small animals to drink their blood and quench my thirst, I loved them. Hey, circle of life, guys, it’s called surviving. We all have to survive no matter what, it’s just instinct. I looked up at the trees, smiling as my two shadow blackbirds flew up singing their song. A paw landed on my thigh. I looked down to see my shadow panther demanding attention. I tickled her behind her ears with a small smile. I had finished my mission early so I decided to come to the Twilight Town forest. After having my fill of blood I decided to stay, just to be around nature and relax. The panther’s ears pricked up and looked ahead. I turned to see a shadow lingering in the midday sun. I tilted my head and beckoned for it. It raced towards me and formed a shape…of a one winged man. I jumped up to my feet to summon a portal but there was a silver blur that knocked me over. I sat up, my panther beside me, her fur bristling. I slowly looked up to see Sephiroth looking down at me. He tutted and shook his head.  
“Whatever happened to your mark?” he asked gesturing his cheek “I thought you weren’t going to use your saliva.”  
My panther growled deeply as I narrowed my eyes at him.  
“You don’t know how effective my friends’ healing powers are,” I snarled.  
Sephiroth smirked and pulled out a dagger. My panther yowled as I inched back.  
“No…” I whimpered as he knelt by me “Please I beg you…don’t…”  
Sephiroth twirled the blade in his hand before severing the panther’s head off.  
“Leave the begging to the dogs,” he sneered placing the tip of the knife under my chin “Or to the wolves…”  
The sudden mention of wolves made me snarl and pull away. Sephiroth’s grin grew wider.  
“Yes…” he cooed “Fight me. It’ll be less painful if I carve out my name when you’re passed out.”  
He smirked as a chilling look passed his features.  
“And maybe I’ll try hiding it somewhere so even you can’t see it.”  
I flinched then allowed my eyes to flash red. My two black birds charged at Sephiroth, blinding him for a few seconds. I took my chance to escape.  
*****************************************************  
Damn it! I screeched to a halt as I reached a dead end. I knew I should have taken the left path instead of the right! I turned and pressed my back to the wall after seeing Sephiroth at the other end of the alley. I plunged my hand into the wall to fall back into a portal but two rough cold hands grabbed my wrists. I gasped in shock as I looked up into the angel’s catlike jade eyes. How was he so fast?  
“Do you think I’m really going to let you go after your little trick?” he asked in a dominant way.  
I struggled against his grip, knowing it was useless.  
“Let me go!” I cried.  
That was it…he had me broken…tears trickled down my cheeks as I continued to fight against him.  
“Let me go!” I cried “Please! I b-”  
“What did I say about begging, princess?” hissed Sephiroth.  
My eyes widened as I looked up at him. My gaze softened as I fell limp. I closed my eyes and turned away. I then felt Sephiroth’s grip leave me and I heard fighting. I peeked one eye open to see him dealing with two Berserker Nobodies. I gasped as one arm looped around my waist. I was about to scream but a hand covered my mouth.  
“Ssh,” hissed a voice “Do you want him to see you being rescued?”  
I tilted my head to see light blue hair. Saïx? Oh thank goodness! I was pulled into a portal. Soon I found that we were in my room. Saïx released his grip and looked down on me.  
“You’re safe,” he stated as he walked to the door “No need to worry about anything.”  
“Wait!”  
I didn’t want to be alone. I ran after him and threw my arms around him from behind. I buried my face into the back of his coat, unable to stop myself from crying.  
“Don’t leave me…” I mumbled.  
**********************************************  
It was so pathetic, I clutched onto him, crying and sniffing and sobbing. Oddly enough, he stayed and let me fall asleep on top of him. When I woke up, he emphasised the fact that he wasn’t a cuddle toy and it wasn’t going to happen again. That really hurt but at least I was away from Sephiroth. Yet, Saïx wouldn’t stop giving me my missions to Hollow Bastion. The funny thing was, Sephiroth changed. He rarely did anything as humiliating, just enjoyed fighting me. The best part though was that he stopped stalking me.  
*************************************************  
Faster, faster, come on legs, run faster! I zipped down the streets, fleeing from the one-winged man that was just around the corner. Fifth time this fortnight! Why did I even take on that particular first mission to Hollow Bastion when I was convincing Saïx to give the Organization a day off? Now every mission I get, I get to know more about the town, and now I’m getting more and more missions to Hollow Bastion because I know this place more than anyone else, save Axel, Saïx, Xaldin, Xigbar, Xemnas and that means more meetings with him!  
WHAM!!!  
Ouch. I stumbled back holding my nose.  
“Good afternoon, princess,” purred that all too familiar spine-chilling voice.  
Looking up, my lips formed a tight line when I saw Sephiroth standing in front of me. I hopped back, summoning my blades on impulse, glaring at my weekly opponent. Sephiroth merely smirked, coming forward. Unsheathing his Masamune, I brought up my blades defensively, stepping back.  
“Let’s make this battle more interesting,” he suggested, holding his Masamune up and outstretched his free hand “Hand me your blades.”  
I tightened my grip on them as I eyed him wearily. He cocked his head to the side and gestured for me to hand my weapons over.  
“I’ll give you my Masamune.”  
I raised an eyebrow as I glanced at the 7.5ft blade before glancing at my own.  
“Why?”  
A small laugh escaped his mouth.  
“You think I’m hard to defeat because I have the larger weapon, right?”  
I shook my head. I don’t actually think that, it’s because I’m always tired when I end up fighting him.  
“Well, let’s just see if this battle will go differently if we have a change of weapons.”  
I hesitated before transferring my blades into one hand and held them out for him. Sephiroth smirked as he took them and held out his Masamune to me. I hesitantly took it, looking up at its length. I spun it before making a cutting motion. It was quite light and firm. I glanced over to see Sephiroth examining my weapons before holding them correctly. They instantly detected their new wielder and extended more so they could reach his elbows. He smirked before glancing at me.  
“Let’s begin,” he said.  
He darted forward, my blades ready to attack their owner. I swiftly brought the Masamune down and blocked the attack. I needed both hands on the handle to match the force against me. I was pushed back slightly until I counteracted with a cutting motion downwards, pushing Sephiroth away from me. Looking up quickly, I swung the insanely long blade in his direction, to have it blocked. Jumping up, I swung it again, this time, landing a hit at his shoulder. He grunted before grabbing the end and flipping me down into the pavement.  
“Not bad,” he drawled.  
Hearing him going in for another attack, I swung the Masamune over to block it. Pushing him away, I scrambled back up and thrust the long sword forward, aiming for the chest. He noticed it and deflected away before running after me, swiping at my face. I moved aside but stumbled as I felt my own blades tearing open one of my cheeks. Resting the back of my hand over the cut to feel the flow of blood, I had to quickly block the next attack. My eyes locked with the cattish jade orbs, staring at me maliciously. Kicking his chest, I withdrew and thrust the blade to him, this time piercing his shoulder. Holding him slightly, I cast him aside, watching as he crashed into one of the buildings.   
He recovered quickly and threw a dark purple sphere at me. Throwing a quick Fire spell to explode it, I ran through, Masamune up and ready to let it drop on its owner. Said owner expected the attack as he blocked it. Driving me up, he swiftly darted forward, cutting through my coat and the flesh on my hip. Turning round, I blocked the next attack. We battled for dominance for a minute or so, until the friction got too much and I found myself being thrown up and onto the buildings. Sephiroth followed me shortly after and I swung the long blade down, experiencing the first time of towering over him. He smirked up at me before quickly swiping at my ankle.   
Balance lost from the sudden attack, I stumbled back, falling off the ledge...and conveniently landed into the Dark Corridor that was waiting for me. I found myself sitting in the passageway, stunned at my luck. Wow...maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all… I got up and winced at a throb of pain in my foot. Looking down, I saw my left boot cut open and blood seeping through. I examined myself and saw I only had injuries on my ankle, hip and cheek. Not as bad as the other encounters. I started to limp through the Dark Corridor until I found myself in the Grey Room.  
“Oh, hi, Xeann,” greeted Luxord as he saw me.  
“Hey, Lux,” I greeted back before limping through to go to my room.  
“Had a stroke of luck today, did we?”  
I glanced at him, smiled and nodded.  
“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad at all,” I said before going down the corridor.  
It wasn’t long until I found Xion in Twilight’s View.  
“Yo.”  
Xion turned and tilted her head to the side.  
“Had an encounter with Sephiroth again, this mission?” she inquired, raising an eyebrow.  
I rolled my eyes as I came beside her.  
“However did you guess?” I asked sarcastically.  
Xion looked and pointed at my hand. I looked down…and saw that I still had the Masamune, firmly in my grip. Oops…  
**********************************************************************************  
Heh, heh, heh, whoops. I had to go back the next day to return it…  
***************************************************  
I ran through the streets, scanning the area.  
“Sephiroth!”  
Now…this isn’t something that happens every day. The last thing I would want to do when in Hollow Bastion is to look for Sephiroth, but… I glanced at the long blade in my hand. I really hate it when I have someone’s possession. I didn’t intend to fall into the Dark Corridor really… Looking around and growling in frustration, I continued to trek the streets, looking for the stupid bastard.  
“Sephiroth!” called a voice which didn’t belong to me.  
Where?! I turned and gasped as I saw a young man with spiky blond hair come after me. I blocked his large blade with the Masamune, shaking slightly from the weight. OK…this guy was called Cloud, right? Right. He widened his blue eyes and withdrew.  
“You’re the girl from before,” he said as he sheathed his sword “What are you doing here with his sword?”  
I held the Masamune up and looked at it.  
“I’m here to return it to him,” I replied “We switched weapons for a battle but then I accidentally ended up taking it home.”  
I looked over to Cloud.  
“Do you know where he is?” I asked.  
Cloud folded his arms, sighed and shook his head.  
“Sorry,” he said “He comes and goes; you never know where he is.”  
I growled as I sagged my shoulders.  
“Hey...”  
I looked up at Cloud who towered over me with narrowed eyes.  
“You wouldn’t happen to be related to those Organization XIII guys, do you?”  
Busted. I hopped back, Masamune poised to attack.  
“Woah.”  
He held his hands up to calm me down.  
“Don’t worry about it,” he said “I just want to know for the future.”  
I hesitated before standing up straight, Masamune pointed to the ground.  
“But...”  
He eyed me wearily.  
“For today we’ll look for Sephiroth together, but next time I see you, I’ll have to stick to my duties and…eliminate you.”  
I tilted my head and nodded.  
“Noted,” I said “Where do we start looking?”  
“Start by looking up.”  
The large sword out of its sheath, Cloud and I stood back-to-back at the sound of Sephiroth’s voice, weapons ready for battle. I glanced round before looking up and saw a glimpse of silver hair.  
“On the rooftops,” I whispered to the young man behind me.  
I heard him nod.  
“On my signal, jump on the Buster Sword.”  
Random request, but OK. Nodding I shifted my grip on the long blade in my hands. A small nudge made me jump up, back-flip and my feet landed on the flat of the Buster Sword. Cloud grunted as he sent me flying upwards to the sky. Spotting our target, I thrust the Masamune upwards to have it blocked. Gravity started taking its effect on me and I fell onto one of the rooftops as Sephiroth stayed in flight. Cloud came next to me to join in the fight. Sephiroth smirked upon seeing him.  
“Ah, Cloud,” he greeted “I see you’ve met the vampire then.”  
Cloud raised an eyebrow as he glanced at me.  
“Vampire?” he said.  
I opened my mouth, showing off my fangs then nodded. He shrugged before glancing up at Sephiroth.  
“Let’s get this over and done with,” he said shifting his grip on his Buster Sword.  
I looked up and narrowed my eyes at the blades Sephiroth still had possession of.  
“Swap weapons again?” I inquired.  
Sephiroth shifted his grip on my blades then tilted his head to the side.  
“You better put up a good fight if you want them,” he said.  
“You don’t want your Masamune back?”  
“I always carry a spare or two.”  
“You have three?”  
Cloud quirked another eyebrow.  
“Three Masamunes?” he said.  
“Let’s say one got broken one battle, we swapped weapons in another and now...yeah, he must have three if he doesn’t want this one back.”  
Shrugging I looked over to my battle partner.  
“You want a try first?”  
“Sure, why not.”  
And he jumped up at the one-winged man, Buster Sword ready for battle. I watched carefully as Sephiroth charged at the spiky haired blond and they had a few clashes of their attacks. Cloud kept on landing on the rooftops every so now and then around me but didn’t wait long to jump up to try and land another hit on Sephiroth. Soon, Sephiroth obviously got bored of Cloud because five minutes later he was coming straight for me. I swiftly blocked the attack before jumping up, stomping on his shoulders to gain more height in my jump. Spinning in mid-air to face him, gravity took hold of me and I poised the Masamune to aim a jab into his shoulder. He jumped to dodge the attack and I jumped after him. Pooling my strength, I thrust the Masamune and it deftly buried itself into his hip. Letting it go I reached out and plucked the blades out of his grip.  
“Ta.”  
And I landed into a portal.  
***************************************  
Then there was the time that I nearly got killed by him!  
****************************************************************  
I stepped onto the pavement of the dreaded world named Hollow Bastion. Sighing, I glanced at the picture of my target before going forward…and bumping into someone. I looked up then yelped, jumping back a few feet. There was Sephiroth, blocking my path, head cocked to the side arrogantly. Already? I’ve barely started my mission!  
“Good morning, princess,” he purred Masamune out and inches away from my nose “I was waiting for you.”  
I swallowed before summoning my blades and getting into a battle stance.  
“This time…”  
My eyes widened as he quickly thrust the Masamune into my chest. I gasped in pain, dropping my blades to grab a hold of the one that was pierced into me. He lifted me up, the pain increasing as my feet left the floor.  
“I won’t hold back,” he said as blood trickled down the blade and my body.  
I was flung to the side, crashing into one of the buildings, staining the wall red. I managed to hit a Thunder spell at him before getting up. He was quick enough to recover and hit me across the cheek. I leaned on the wall for support after the impact. Sephiroth thrust the Masamune into my chest again and lifted me up.  
“You’re doing well.”  
He threw me up without much effort. He came after me as I struggled for balance when in mid-air. My eyes widened as the Masamune came up and pierced my stomach. It came out again and went into my thigh. It continued like that, the Masamune piercing my skin and drawing blood as I was helplessly thrown about on impact. I then shrieked out as the blade went through my right foot and into my left hand. OW!!! He then pierced my chest again and sent me hurtling down a few hundred feet. Landing, my bones cracked on impact on the stone ground. I glared up at him before sending a dark sphere at him to distract him before crawling into the portal.  
**********************************************************************************  
I retched, coughing up blood on the way to the infirmary. Everyone was gone on their missions so it was pretty quiet and empty in the castle. As I looked back I grimaced at the trail that I left behind. Looks like I have a lot of cleaning up to do. I placed my hand on the wall for support, and then gasped as I withdrew it. The blood had soaked through my glove, leaving a bloody handprint on the wall. Shrugging it off, I limped down the stairs, using the wall as a guide so I didn’t fall. Taking off my glove as I continued through the corridors to the infirmary I licked the cut at the back of my palm. I breathed in sharply as it healed up, leaving a clear scar. I then got to the infirmary and immediately went to the sink to vomit up more blood. Coughing hoarsely, I slumped onto one of the counters and grabbed some bandages then everything went black as I fell to the floor.  
********************************************************  
I felt myself stir and the first thing I registered was that every inch of my body hurt a lot. I grunted as I felt my hands grip onto sheets. I slowly propped myself off, hissing in pain as I brushed a few wounds.  
“Stay still.”  
I opened one eye and saw Saïx sitting beside my bed. I blinked in confusion before noting the scar I had on my hand. Oh yeah, I was out on a mission to Hollow Bastion and… I winced as I remembered the fight. And I didn’t even get a chance to start it because Sephiroth practically slaughtered me on the spot.  
“I…need to get to work,” I muttered as I swung one leg over the bedside.  
I slipped and closed my eyes as I expected to land on the cold hard floor. One arm looped around my waist and carefully eased me back onto the bed. I opened my eyes again and saw a pair of irritated looking eyes glare down at me.  
“I sent Demyx in your place,” he informed “You need to rest otherwise you’ll be rendered useless to us.”  
I scowled as I lay back then shot straight back up, ignoring the jolts of pain.  
“Did you bandage every wound?” I asked, a blush forming my cheeks.  
Saïx raised an eyebrow and nodded.  
“I didn’t see anything,” he said “Your back was to me at all times as I bandaged the wound in your chest.”  
I sighed and leaned back on the pillows with a frown.  
“I don’t understand why he just pounced on me immediately like that,” I muttered.  
“Sephiroth doesn’t need an excuse to attack anyone.”  
I shrugged as I gazed out of the window.  
“Can I at least have some paperwork to get out of this boredom?”  
“I’ve finished it all.”  
“Don’t tell me I have to stay here, bored to death.”  
“We could talk.”  
I raised an eyebrow as I turned to my mentor.  
“What would you want to talk about?” I proposed as I got ready to be bored even more to death.  
*********************************************************************************************************  
Saïx isn’t one for conversation at all. But boy, I had a massive blood feast when I was discharged from the medical room and headed straight to Twilight Town. I swear a lake of spilt blood had formed somewhere in the forest and someone’s probably going to shout bloody murder. Heh… Then it got weird…  
********************************************************************************************************************************************  
I dashed around the corner of one of the streets of Hollow Bastion. I then crashed into a hard toned body and two hands grabbed my shoulders.  
“Going somewhere in a rush?” asked a silky voice.  
I practically jumped five feet in the air and landed far away from Sephiroth, blades ready for battle. He chuckled in amusement.  
“What is there to laugh about?” I hissed “I could have died because of you last time!”  
He smirked and walked over to me casually, hooking a finger under my chin. He tilted it up and cocked his head to the side as he gazed down at me.  
“Why do you work for them?”  
I hesitated before stepping back. He followed me and pushed me into the wall behind me.  
“You’re two completely different creatures,” he said “You’re a vampire, with a heart, no matter how dead it is, and yet you work with those who lack a heart.”  
“They’re my friends,” I said, casting my eyes away, feeling weak by his aura alone “I want to help them…and become human again.”  
His gaze hardened as he towered over me.  
“And lose your abilities as a vampire?” he said.  
I nodded.  
“I just want…a normal life,” I said shifting on the spot “A normal life as a human.”  
“You could have a normal life as a vampire.”  
“No I couldn’t, not with vampire hunters interrupting my life.”  
“You could live here, where there are none. Everyone here accepts everyone despite their species.”  
I gave him a ‘You must be joking’ look.  
“I’d rather live in my coffin,” I said “I don’t think I’d settle in well here.”  
He tilted his head to the side then sighed.  
“Because of me?”  
“The guy who nearly murdered me? Yep.”  
“I wasn’t going to kill you.”  
“Just seriously injure?”  
“Actually, to render you unconscious.”  
I rolled my eyes and stepped to the side, away from him.  
“I need to get back,” I said, my blades disappearing.  
He grabbed my wrist, squeezing it tightly.  
“What’s the rush?”  
“None of your concern.”  
“Tell me and I may just let you go.”  
“It’s work.”  
“Not good enough.”  
“Just let me-”  
I let out a startled cry as I heard a snap and felt my wrist being snapped in half. I turned to him and he looked slightly confused, staring at my wrist absentmindedly. Twinges of pain shocked my nerves travelling up my arm and making me whimper in pain.  
“Let me go,” I said.  
When he didn’t respond I sent a kick into his torso. He was pushed back and I dashed off to the portal. What was that about?  
*************************************************************************************************************  
The last time I ever saw him was when I had a mission to tag onto Sora’s shadow for spying purposes.   
***********************************************************************************************************  
I followed them outside where they were intercepted by three Dusks.  
“We don’t have time for you,” Sora said as he took out one and ran off, leaving the other two to his friends.  
They went up the ramp and-HOLY HECK THAT’S A BRIGHT LIGHT!!!!  
“Whoa!”  
I closed my eyes and turned away. I hate bright lights! Hate them, hate them, hate them!!! I could see it had faded through my eyelids but holy heck…I hope my sight is still intact, if not, whoever the wise guy was to make such a flashy appearance is so-  
“Sora, it’s Sephiroth!”  
-dead? Sephiroth?! Where?! I opened my eyes and shivered as I saw those familiar boots. Why? Why now? Out of all times, why does he have to appear when I’m on a very important mission?  
“Ain’t Sephiroth the one who’s supposed to be the dark part of Cloud’s heart?” asked Goofy.  
Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me.   
“Huh,” grunted Sephiroth “Did Cloud tell you that? Then he must understand now.”  
Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me.  
“Just what are you gonna do to him?” asked Sora.  
You don’t want to know, mate. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me.  
“Nothing,” replied Sephiroth “Cloud is the one who hungers for Darkness.”  
Score one to the dark side! Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me.  
“He said he’s got a score to settle with you,” said Sora.  
Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me.  
“I see…” mused Sephiroth “He wants to meet me again.”  
Well, the three of us have been ‘meeting’ occasionally and all…how long has it been since I last saw Cloud anyway? He turned away and casually walked a few steps away. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me. Please do not see me.  
“Then I should give him what he wants,” he continued “That last bit of light is always the hardest to snuff out.”  
And he levitated up in the air a few metres before disappearing in a darker light. Phew…  
**************************************************************************************************************  
And that was the end of that, thank God. But it wasn’t long until Sora killed everyone at the Organization. Saïx pushed me into a Dark Corridor before he battled Sora, sending me to Twilight Town. My powers over the Dark Corridors had been stripped and I couldn’t return to the castle to help fight against Sora. I don’t know what happened there but I never heard from Saïx ever again. I had been there to witness Axel and Demyx fade away, Xion I never got to say goodbye and Roxas, he just left and I never saw him again. All my friends had been taken away from me. And I was left to wander Twilight Town alone. Even if it was a living hell, it was the happiest living hell I could have asked for. Oh, and in case you’re wondering how Sephiroth’s blade broke…  
**********************************************************************  
I cried out in pain as Sephiroth leapt on me, his Masamune piercing my shoulder.  
“Oh dear,” he hissed “I slipped.”  
I let out a dangerous snarl.  
“Firaga!” I bellowed.  
BANG!  
Searing pain flooded through me as Sephiroth’s blade broke, probably out of overuse, and I ran into the Dark Corridor ahead of me. I soon fell into the Grey Area and clutched my shoulder, hissing when I realised that it was still impaled by Sephiroth’s broken blade.  
*************************************************************************************************  
That gave me a nasty scar. Well, at least I don’t have to see him anymore!   
*****************************************************************************************************  
I lifted my head from my old journal when I saw a black feather fall from the sky and land by my feet.  
“It’s been too long, my princess.”  
FUCK!


	3. A Rough Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get a day off then a bitch like Larxene ruins it

I whistled a merry tune while skipping down the corridors, running my hand along the wall next to me in a carefree manner. I don’t know how, but somehow I convinced Saïx to convince Xemnas to give us the whole day off! I grinned to myself proudly. Sure, Axel pushed me into doing it since apparently I’m closer to him than he is but hey, despite the extra amount of paperwork I need to do with Saïx later this evening, it sure was worth it. It’s nice to have a relaxed aura in the castle, it’s just so…relaxing!  
“What are you so happy about?” came a low growl.  
I turned my head, scowling when I saw Larxene turn the corner of the corridor.  
“I was enjoying the peace and quiet,” I replied curtly “It’s good for your health to at least smile once in a while and be happy.”  
“Oh yeah,” Larxene sneered as she leaned on the wall “You have a heart so you can feel happiness.”  
That hit me and I grimaced as she rolled her eyes.  
“It just shows that you definitely did sleep your way into the Organization otherwise Xemnas wouldn’t have accepted you,” she scorned and my eyes flashed red angrily.  
“I am no whore, Larxene,” I snarled at her “I was merely offered a place.”  
“You need to have survived losing your heart to be able to get into this Organization,” Larxene derided “I bet you’re too scared to lose your heart, in case you die because of it.”  
“I have my uses here,” I argued, my fist clenching against the wall.  
“Oh yes, you have your ‘uses’ here,” she echoed using air quotes “No wonder you’re our princess. Tch, why did you even take that pitiful title? It’s no use calling yourself a princess if you don’t even have a heart of pure light. You don’t even act like a princess.”  
“If male vampires are known as princes of the night, I naturally assumed the title of Night Princess,” I argued.  
“Vampires are monsters,” Larxene scowled, making me bristle “Like Heartless. Beasts. Bloodthirsty beasts that kill innocent people for their amusement and desire for power.”  
“How dare you,” I hissed at her “I have never drunk from a human ever. Vampires would never kill unless they have to.”  
“Oh?” Larxene quirked an eyebrow “What about the teenage girl that died four years ago in Twilight Town with two puncture wounds to her neck?”  
“In case you’re implying that was my doing, you damned bitch, it was me who died!” I snapped at her, eyes burning brightly “I died from that vampire because he was starved for blood!”  
“And the girl that died the week before you came into the Organization?”  
I bit my tongue and glared at her.  
“Fuck off to Marluxia’s chambers,” I scowled at her and stormed off.  
As my heels clicked against the floor in the corridor with Larxene cackling behind me then leaving, I felt my lips gingerly. Grimacing, I pulled my hood up as if ashamed to be seen.  
That girl died by my hands. I’ll confess that now. I had been starved to near death lately, unable to find any animals to quench my thirst. That poor girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just like me when I was on my way home on the night I got converted. She was so frightened when I grabbed her arm. She didn’t even scream when I sunk my greedy fangs into her neck. Her blood was just so intoxicating, so delicious and so wonderful and her skin was so soft that it just crumbled when my fangs touched it. I drank and drank until my thirst was quenched. But then I realised I had taken too much. She just lay limp in my arms, her white clothes stained in her own blood and her eyes closed as if accepting her fate. I left her there with what looked like a new stuffed Moogle and ran.  
When my thoughts trailed away, I realised I had stormed off to the top of the castle, looking up at the golden heart that was known as Kingdom Hearts. I found myself asking why I was in the Organization in the first place.  
“Yo, Xeann,” I heard Axel approaching me “Geez, you walk fast.”  
I heard laboured breathing until he took one deep breath. I didn’t turn around to look at him, just stayed sitting over the edge of the tower, looking up.  
“So, me, Roxas and Xion are going to head over to Twilight Town for some ice cream,” he kept talking “You wanna come?”  
“No.”  
My answer was plain, final, simple and clean. But he came closer and sat by me.  
“Hey, something the matter?” he asked.  
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said firmly.  
“Aw, come on,” he nudged me a bit with a cheery grin “Axel here is going to cheer you up but he won’t be able to if you don’t tell him what’s wrong.”  
“Just leave me alone,” I said, my voice starting to sound like a child’s.  
“Naw, come on,” he nudged me again.  
“Leave me alone, Axel!” I suddenly shouted and snapped at him, baring my fangs menacingly.  
“Woah, OK, fine, I’m leaving,” he said and got up, going through a Dark Corridor.  
I sighed peacefully when he left and continued staring up at Kingdom Hearts. Wow. This isn’t actually as boring as I thought it would be. I owe an apology to Saïx…   
“Xe-Xe!” came Demyx’s cheery voice.  
“Not now, Demyx,” I barked at him.  
“Oh when the saints!” he was already singing and playing his sitar “Go marching in! Oh when the saints go marching in! Your turn, Xe-Xe!”  
“I said not now!” I roared at him, turning and baring my fangs at him.  
He whimpered in fright and stumbled back fearfully whilst I got up to my feet.  
“Jesus Christ, where did all the peace and quiet go?” I mumbled moodily and stalked back down into the castle.  
“Wait, Xe-Xe!” Demyx chased after me “Tell me what’s wrong!”  
“What’s wrong?!” I bellowed and turned sharply on my heel to glare him square in the eye “I’m a fucking monster, that’s what’s wrong!”  
“Aw, Xe-Xe,” Demyx pouted cutely in an attempt to calm me down “You’re not a monster. Monsters are ugly!”  
“Looks are deceiving, Demyx!” I shouted at him.  
“But you’re so pretty!” he smiled cheerfully “You’re not a monster, Xe-Xe!”  
“You idiot,” I snarled “I’m supposed to be pretty to lure my victims towards me! Look at me!”  
I leaned closer and bared my fangs at him. He stared at them and gave a cheerful smile.  
“But you just told me that looks are deceiving,” he hummed “Just because you have fangs doesn’t mean you’re a monster!”  
“Then what am I?” I bit out at him.  
“You’re Xeann,” he grinned with an innocent looking shrug “One of my closest friends that is very cute when she’s modest about compliments given to her. She’s very beautiful and so elegant and she’s very regal and ladylike that people call her a princess!”  
“Regal?” I said slowly “Ladylike? Princess? Ha!”  
I turned sharply on my heel.  
“I’m a monster!” I roared “I kill to feed and I don’t give humans time to beg for mercy when I drain their blood and cast away their bloody corpses!”  
“No, Xe-Xe…” Demyx whined.  
“Just leave me alone!” I shouted at him “I’m every nightmare you’ve ever had! I’m your worst dream come true! I’m everything you ever were afraid of!”  
I felt myself choking up and ran away from him. I ended up locking myself in my bedroom. I flung myself onto my bed and began punching the pillows to vent out my frustration. Stupid Larxene, how dare she ruin my day off! I was so relaxed and calm and then the infuriating bitch comes out of nowhere to ruin it! I don’t believe it! I hope she gets raped by multiple Heartless on her next mission! I can’t stand her! I continued punching my pillows as someone on the door knocked.  
“XVI…?”  
“GO AWAY!” I roared and kept pounding my pillows, showing no mercy.  
Whoever it was tried to open my doors but found out they were locked. Then I heard a swirl of a Dark Corridor and drew out my blades to turn to them.  
“Get. Out.”  
Saïx didn’t seem fazed by the threat as he dismissed the Dark Corridor and raised an unamused eyebrow.  
“Is something the matter?” he asked.  
I reluctantly dismissed my blades.  
“No,” I grumbled and got off the bed, standing by the window to stare down at the city that surrounded the castle.  
I traced the glass thoughtfully, realising quietly that I lacked a reflection because of what I was. With a sniff, I gently banged my fist against it.  
“Don’t lie to me.”  
I gasped and looked up to see Saïx had moved to stand next to me. He too lacked a reflection and I sighed.  
“Why did Xemnas offer me a place here?” I asked.  
“The Superior saw you using your shadow powers and concluded that you would have been a useful asset to the Organization,” Saïx replied.  
“But why didn’t he take my heart so he could split me into both Heartless and Nobody?” I asked and leaned my head against the cool glass “I feel so out of place to have a heart here.”  
Saïx was silent for a while.  
“Your powers would have been weakened if he did that,” he replied “It also didn’t seem necessary to split you when you already had so much control over the darkness.”  
I clenched my fists and sighed.  
“I’m a monster,” I grumbled.  
“Larxene’s opinion on monsters is different to everyone else’s,” Saïx said and I winced.  
“You heard, huh?” I mumbled and sagged my shoulders “But it’s true. I don’t even have a reflection.”  
Saïx went quiet again and turned to me fully.  
“I don’t have a reflection,” he stated “Does that make me a monster?”  
“What, no!” I stuttered and looked up at him then looked away with a light blush “You’re…not a monster.”  
I sighed tiredly and yawned.  
“Damn Larxene,” I grumbled under my breath.  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Saïx observe me coolly before turning to look up at Kingdom Hearts.  
“If I’m not a monster than what am I?” he asked in almost a mocking tone.  
“Aw come on, did you hear me with Demyx too?” I growled at him “Have you been stalking me?”  
“Quite the opposite, however you were shouting so loud that I couldn’t help but overhear.”  
I pouted softly.  
“Well, you’re a Nobody,” I replied “But you’ve never killed an innocent girl out of bloodlust.”  
“Neither have you?” Saïx quirked an eyebrow and I leaned my forehead against the window again.  
“Yes, I have,” I sighed “I killed a girl in Twilight Town and I’ve never forgiven myself for it.”  
“I thought vampires only kill if they have to.”  
I was getting irritated by him stealing all my lines and shut up. We stood in silence for a while until Saïx spoke up again.  
“Someone once told me that when you look at your reflection, you see yourself in a different world,” he said “If you see other people and items in the reflection with you then they’re part of your world because you see them and acknowledge them in your existence.”  
I stiffened when he took my hand in his.  
“Take another look in the window.”  
I looked up and yelped when I saw a pair of red eyes staring back at me.  
“That’s…fucked up…” I murmured.  
“Now you see your reflection, do you still think of yourself as a monster?” Saïx asked tilting his head.  
I hung mine and shook my head, my shoulders shaking as I began sobbing quietly.  
“Why are you being such a softie, this isn’t like you!” I whined and buried my face into his chest.  
He hugged me, patting my head.  
“I was cheering you up,” he said.  
“Sheesh, you must have been a real ladies’ man when you had a heart,” I mumbled shyly.  
There was a dry chuckle.  
“I can’t remember that much,” he admitted.  
I took in a deep sigh and slowly opened my eyes to look at the window. I blinked and soon Saïx’s reflection came up and I smiled.  
“There, now you have a reflection. Happy?”  
I swear I saw Saïx smile softly before pulling away.  
“I see your mood has improved,” he said “Now, let’s get started on the paperwork.”  
I sighed grumpily but followed him to his study anyway. We spent hours with mountains of paperwork everywhere. I was beginning to get tired pretty quickly and before I knew it, it was one in the morning and I was sleeping amongst the papers. I snorted and woke up when Saïx came back into his study with some water and picked up a pen at random.  
“Sorry…” I said in a slur “I was just resting my eyes…”  
I blindly began writing what I was thinking about for the current report I was evaluating. Saïx came and plucked the pen out of my grip.  
“Xeann, you’re impaired,” I swear I heard a chuckle “I don’t think it’ll do us any good with you writing on the floor.”  
I yawned and was lifted up and placed on a nice warm bed. I felt a hand stroking my hair as I blissfully fell asleep. The next day I was given off to catch up on sleep otherwise I wouldn’t be as effective on missions. That night, Axel, Demyx, Roxas and Xion came to my room to cheer me up.  
“Oh when the saints! Go marching in!” Demyx sung on his sitar.  
“Oh when the saints go marching in!” Axel belted out after him.  
“I want to be in that number!” I sung in an almost perfect pitch.  
“When the saints go marching in!” we sang together.  
“KEEP IT DOWN!!!” Larxene screeched at us from across the hall.  
Roxas and Xion jumped as I glared venomously at my bedroom doors.  
“Bitch,” I muttered.  
“Sheesh, wouldn’t it hurt just to have a cheery spirit for three minutes?” Xion frowned.  
“Well she is in Marluxia’s room so we might have interrupted her cheery activity,” I sighed and lay on my bed.  
“Don’t let her get to you, princess,” Axel smiled at me.  
I shrugged and opened my eyes.  
“Let’s have some fun,” I said “You all go to your rooms, grab your pillows and blankets then make yourselves comfortable on the floor. We’re having a sleepover.”  
“Yay! Sleepover!” Demyx cheered.  
“What’s a sleepover?” Xion asked and she and Roxas looked up at Axel.  
“It’s when all your friends come over and sleep in the same room as you,” Axel explained “It’s fun. You can play games, share secrets, have pillow fights and tell ghost stories.”  
“But won’t Larxene suspect something?” Demyx tilted his head.  
“I don’t give a fuck about what Larxene thinks,” I scoffed “Now go on, don’t keep me waiting for you guys or I’ll fall asleep.”  
Eventually after five minutes, blankets and pillows were strewn about my room and Axel insisted that we should play truth or dare.  
“So Xeann, you’re the host, you should start,” he grinned at me cheekily “Truth or dare?”  
“Dare,” I said with a challenging grin.  
“Run around the castle naked.”  
Said grin fell and I glared at him.  
“No,” I growled.  
“If you forfeit the dare then you have to wear a thong that I shall buy for you for a week,” Axel grinned.  
I shuddered. I hate thongs. I’ve seen my mother in one and it wasn’t a pretty sight.  
“Fine!” I growled and stripped down.  
Xion giggled as I brought my blanket to the doors and took a deep breath.  
“And no cutting corners!” Axel called out and I glared at him.  
With a deep breath, I dropped the blanket and ran as fast as I could. I passed Zexion by the library, passed Luxord and Xaldin at the Grey Area and Xigbar followed me when he spotted me, the pervert. He even took pictures. Within ten minutes, I dove into my bedroom and back underneath my blanket, glaring at the redhead that burst out laughing.  
“Give me a cookie,” I demanded childishly and snatched a cookie from the plate of cookies Xion had brought with her.  
I chomped moodily then glared at Axel.  
“Axel, truth or dare?” I asked.  
“Dare,” Axel stuck his tongue out playfully.  
“Find Xigbar and kiss him on the lips,” I said with a playful smirk.  
Axel spluttered and gaped at me.  
“What?!” he bellowed and there was a loud thud from outside.  
“As if!” Xigbar shouted “I ain’t kissing no faggot!”  
“Who are you calling a faggot, you old faggot?!” Axel shouted.  
“You heard me!”  
The Truth and Dare game went on for about another hour or so after Axel forfeited and agreed to hug Roxas in his lap for ten minutes.  
“Xeann, last one, truth or dare?” asked Demyx.  
“Truth,” I mumbled grumpily as Xion did my hair up into a funny style.  
“What are your feelings for Saïx?”  
“Oh, good one!” Axel said as he perked up and I blushed “Yeah, Xeann, you spend a lot of time around old Scar Face. What are your feelings for him?”  
“We are merely colleagues in the Organization working together to achieve our new hearts by completing Kingdom Hearts,” I said as a matter-of-factly “I only see him as my mentor and someone who is a higher rank to me.”  
Axel snorted and Xion fell over, giggling uncontrollably. Roxas snickered whilst Demyx laughed loudly.  
“What?” I frowned.  
“You s-sound just l-like him!” Xion giggled and I turned round to glare at her.  
“I do not!” I said.  
“Yes you so do!” Axel howled with laughter “You two would make quite the couple!”  
I threw a pillow into his face.  
“P-Pillow fight!” I shouted with a blush and grabbed another pillow, diving towards Axel.  
Feathers went flying as I successfully distracted them. Afterwards, Axel told a ghost story about some boy getting locked up in the basement and dying from suffocation. He now haunts the castle on the day of his death apparently. It didn’t faze me but it certainly scared Demyx to never go into the basement again. I ended up falling asleep cuddling Axel because he’s just so warm. Demyx slept nearby whilst Xion and Roxas shared the bed.  
I woke up earlier when I heard a swirl of a Dark Corridor but I was just so sleepy that I barely opened my eyes. I did see someone wandering to my night stand and tried to sit up to see who it was. Axel pulled me closer in his sleep with a groan and I moaned irritably at his actions. The person did come over to us and stroked my scalp which made me sleepier and drop off to sleep before I could even see who it was.  
When I woke up there was a flat box on my nightstand. We all gathered around it, wondering who gave it to me and what it was.  
“Well it isn’t going to open itself, Xeann,” Axel urged and I hunched my shoulders.  
“Well yeah but supposing it’s a trap from Larxene?” I muttered.  
“I thought you…um…didn’t give a fuck?” Roxas frowned.  
I carefully tugged the blue ribbon off the silver box and slid it open. We all blinked at the hand mirror that lay inside it.  
“Why would someone give you a mirror?” Xion frowned.  
“Yeah, I thought vampires didn’t have reflections,” Demyx tilted his head.  
I smiled inwardly and lifted, from what I now call, the Mirror that Reflects Nothing up.  
“Someone once told me that when you look at your reflection, you see yourself in a different world. If you see other people and items in the reflection with you then they’re part of your world because you see them and acknowledge them in your existence.”  
Ha, in your face, Saïx! Now you know what it feels like to have your lines being stolen! I giggled as Demyx and Axel showed up in the mirror.  
“Woah, hey!” Demyx exclaimed “Wow, I look good.”  
Axel snorted and shoved him.  
“Yeah right,” he said “I look sexy.”  
I giggled as they bickered amongst each other and took another look at the mirror, smiling to myself as I saw my reflection appear between them.  
“Let us see!”  
I turned the mirror to the Keyblade wielders and they peered into it.  
“I don’t see anything,” Roxas said as he squinted.  
“Wait!” Xion tugged at his sleeve “Look!”  
I craned my head to see that their reflections had appeared in the mirror too. I smiled warmly then gasped.  
“We’re going to be late in getting our missions!” I said and got up to brush my hair.  
“Huh? Oh yeah!” Axel dropped Demyx “Shit, Saïx might give us extra missions to do if we don’t hurry up!”  
“Hurry, hurry, hurry!” Demyx chanted and ran out of the bedroom with the other three tailing him.  
I jumped into a random pair of shorts and pulled a tank top down over my breasts before grabbing a coat and running out of my room, pulling it on.  
I ran into the Grey Area in time to see Xion and Roxas disappearing into their separate Dark Corridors.  
“XVI, you’re late,” Saïx said with an irritable frown.  
“I’m sorry,” I panted and stood in front of him, catching my breath.  
“It’s alright,” he sighed “Your mission is to help finish up the paperwork that we failed to finish.”  
“No way,” I looked up at him “I thought you finished it?”  
“I spent the rest of the night cleaning up the mess you made,” Saïx raised an eyebrow and I groaned “Come on, we have a lot of work to do. And please write on paper instead of the floor.”  
I grumbled and followed him with a moody pout. I looked up at him and smiled.  
“Thanks for the mirror,” I chirruped.  
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  
I scowled at him and folded my arms. What a bipolar jerk.


	4. My First Experiences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First fights, first friends

I remember being new at the Organization. Almost immediately I was discriminated for being a creature of darkness and not having my heart ripped out because it would be an unnecessary process. Almost a week passed and I found myself in the Hall of Empty Melodies, in between XIII and XIV, or Roxas and Xion, I was still learning names, around my mentor, Saïx. Everyone apart from I, Xemnas, and XV, I didn’t quite catch her name, was here.  
“So, what did you bring us here for?” Axel, yeah I had his name memorized, asked.  
“The Superior requested for us to spend the day practicing our fighting skills,” Saïx said simply as he folded his arms “He is also curious to see how well we would fare against a beast of darkness.”  
I bristled at the way everyone gave me a glance and realised I was the beast of darkness.  
“Hello?” I raised an eyebrow “I can hear you.”  
“Good to know.”   
He either didn’t take the hint that I was insulted or he ignored it.  
“Now, shouldn’t we wait for that other girl to wake up?” II, Xigbar asked with folded arms.  
“Well it doesn’t seem she’s going to be waking up any time soon,” IV, I can’t quite remember his name.  
“You don’t think she’s going to fall back into the darkness, do you?” IX, Demyx asked worriedly.  
“If she does then it proves that Zexion took her out too late,” Vexen, his name is Vexen, sighed with a shrug.  
“I didn’t,” Zexion insisted “She may be young but she emits a powerful energy that doesn’t look like it’ll give up. Give it some more time, she’ll awake eventually.”  
“It’s been almost a fortnight,” III grumbled “I hardly think such a child can survive losing a heart. She’s been unresponsive ever since you took her out of the darkness. We’ve already got our sixteenth member and she’s not even one of us!”  
“I’m standing right here!” I said with another bristle.  
“Oh do be quiet.”  
I snarled at the pink haired man that spoke to me and folded my arms moodily. XII, Larxene rolled her eyes.  
“And I was so excited to seeing another woman come into the Organization,” she sighed “To think, she’s so wild and beastly.”  
I gnashed my fangs at her threateningly but Saïx shot me a look, making me lower my gaze.  
“XVI, you shall begin by combatting XIII and XIV.”  
I looked at the Keyblade wielders on either side of me whilst the other members backed away to give us space. They summoned their Keyblades in unison while I summoned my dual black blades that curved to my elbow. They charged at me and our blades clashed. They didn’t have a distinct pattern, just simply observing my pattern and trying to come up to me to land hits. Roxas spent most of his attacks charging and using techniques with his Keyblade. Xion mainly used spells like Fire and Blizzard, nothing that I couldn’t use a quick Cure spell on. Eventually they began using twin attacks on me which I began dodging and deflecting. It was when they both missed me when I turned myself to dodge their attacks that I saw a quick and easy victory.  
TOK!  
I winced mentally when I heard the sound of their heads colliding when I banged them together. They fell onto the floor, looking pretty unresponsive which got me worried. But when I began panicking silently about knocking the two children out cold, Axel began laughing.  
“I’m sorry,” he gasped and began wiping tears “That’s just such a cute technique for a creature of darkness to use!”  
“I have a name!” I retorted with a snarl “Xeann! Got it memorized?”  
“Hey, not cool,” Axel stopped laughing almost immediately whilst Zexion and V dragged the Keyblade wielders away.  
I stuck my tongue out at him as Saïx announced that Larxene could fight me next. The fucking bitch immediately stunned me with a Thundaga spell and ran up to me, stabbing her weapon into my face. Thankfully I recovered quickly enough to swerve and grab her hand but her weapon went right through my fingers and scratched my face. I snarled at her.  
“The fuck?” I cursed at her grinning face “You could have clawed my eye out, you bitch!”  
“I was hoping to do just that,” she simpered and I snarled at her.  
I didn’t need to use my weapons because I knew exactly how I wanted to hurt her. First I kicked her straight in the groin, making her grunt and bend over. Then with all my anger fuelling my energy, I smashed her nose with my knee, making a sweet cracking noise. I smelt blood as she fell to her knees and held her nose.  
“You fucking whore!” she shrieked at me and I stepped back to avoid getting hurt any more “That’s cheating! You’re going to pay for this!”  
She got to her feet and ran off, cursing as she left a trail of blood. I sighed tiredly as Saïx announced that XI could come and fight me. I ducked when he abruptly swung that massive scythe at me in the attempt to slice my head off. I kept my head low and ran around him, avoiding the massive pink blade coming at me and attempted to cut him whenever he left an opening. Now, before this day I had grown my hair out to my heels since the night of my turning. It only reaches my waist now because I jumped to avoid getting my legs cut off and XI cut a hefty chunk of my hair off when he missed. This got me angry so my attacks got pretty frenzied. No-one cuts my hair without my permission! When he took another swing at me, I jumped and landed on the scythe purposely. This caused him to stumble and I punched him straight in the eye, my anger making it more powerful that I caught him off guard, making him stumble.   
“That’s gotta smart,” Xigbar winced as I stepped back and examined my hair.  
“Huh,” I muttered and twirled around “A surprisingly clean cut but I’m still holding a grudge on you until it grows back.”  
I gave XI a dirty glare as he retrieved his scythe and Saïx called him aside so X would go up against me. I stepped back warily when he summoned gigantic cards and began attacking me with them. I began running about, trying to detect a pattern whilst getting paper cuts on my face. This man hardly let me go any closer to him and he had an annoying range of time spells, making me freeze in time whenever it pleased him. I then decided to use my shadow form to sneak up to him and hide in his shadow. He gave a puzzled look as he lowered his guard and looked around.  
“Where did she go?” he asked.  
SCHING!!!  
He made a strangled noise and fell to the floor after I criss-crossed my blades into his back. I stepped back as Saïx called him away and put Demyx in next. He summoned a large blue guitar and began playing it. Though I was confused at first, I realised what he was doing when water pooled at my feet and hands grabbed me by my ankle, pulling me down. I struggled against them but soon more and more water pooled around me, holding me down and covering me to drown me. I felt myself getting more frustrated with every twist and turned I attempted to get out of the grips of the hands. Then I realised that I’d have to slip out of my predicament by using my shadow powers. Once I slunk into my own shadow, I rushed towards Demyx, jumping out and hissing at him maliciously. He screamed in quite a high pitch that it nearly shattered my sensitive hearing.  
“Don’t hurt me!” he squealed and hid himself behind the guitar.  
I raised an eyebrow before snatching the guitar and whacking him on the head with it.  
“Ow!” he whined and ran off to hide behind V.  
The guitar I took from him disappeared and Saïx tried to encourage Demyx to continue. All of his efforts failed so Axel came at me next. Flames surrounded us, making me jump because I had a bit of a fear of fire ever since I was a little girl. Axel summoned his…uh…wheel things and began throwing them at me. I brought out my blades to block his attacks and figure out how to get close to him without getting scorched. I wanted to use my shadow form as little as possible because it took up so much energy. Perhaps I had to do the same for Axel? How long would I be able to go on for?   
I haven’t really tested my limit on my shadow powers before I came to the Organization. I felt alright at the moment so I shrugged and rushed towards Axel in my shadow form. I shot out when I was directly in front of him, my blade coming up across his face and chopping off a few of his red spikes off. Then I went into a flurry of frenzied attacks before he could attack me, slashing at his coat and tearing it to shreds. I noticed with every slash I executed, a trail of light purple smoke followed my blades through, burning Axel’s skin. I jumped back when I realised this and Axel fell to the floor with a loud thud. I grimaced and took a look at Saïx, shrugging helplessly. He narrowed his eyes then summoned his weapon.  
“I’m your next opponent,” he announced as he came on when the flames died and V dragged Axel away.  
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I stepped back warily as his hair began growing out and more wild. His eyes dilated as he looked at me and a mighty roar left his mouth. I ran out of the way as his weapon became spiked and he began charging towards me. I swear I thought he was going to kill me and a mental picture of the blood of my victims covering the Hall of Empty Melodies flashed in my head. Eventually he was worn out and in the middle of the hall, the other Organization members had evacuated to look on the balcony as I ran around like a headless chicken pretty much. I took my chance and ran up towards Saïx, blades at hand. He looked up as I aimed to criss-cross them on his chest and I gasped in surprise as they went up his face. Saïx roared in pain and I hopped back in shock as blood splattered onto the floor and held my mouth and nose. He fell to the floor, quivering from shock and his hair growing shorter and tamer.  
“Wow, she got him!” Xigbar cheered and clapped as V and Zexion cautiously came down and looked at Saïx.   
Lexaeus brought him upright and Zexion examined how the X shaped wound burned Saïx’s skin and Vexen came down next to examine him.  
“Fascinating,” he murmured “The beast can call forth the darkness to imbue in her weapons.”  
“Stop calling me that!” I snapped catching their attention “I’m not a beast!”  
“A vampire is a beast in human form,” Zexion said as he opened the book that he always carried around.  
Vexen and V left the hall with Saïx in tow as I brought my blades up into a defensive position. Zexion smirked as multiple copies of himself filled the hall and I looked around helplessly as they all gave me a smirk and told me to come at them. I closed my eyes and focused on one clone, gasping when I realised that he didn’t have a blood pulse. I then began searching through the crowd, focusing on each Zexion copy until I could sense the irresistible pulse of life that every vampire craved for. I licked my lips and opened my eyes, locking on my target. I rushed forward past the clones and grabbed the Zexion copy that had a blood pulse.  
CRUNCH!  
Zexion screamed in agony as I pushed his coat aside so I could sink my fangs deep into his neck and drink from him. His clones flickered and disappeared as he dropped his book and fell from the shock as I let him go, blood dribbling down my chin. He gingerly touched the puncture marks and looked at me.  
“That is why a vampire is known as a beast,” he said quietly as V grabbed him and rushed him over to the medical room.   
I wiped my mouth and looked up at the balconies. I saw Saïx standing amongst the crowd after recovering from my attack and an X-shaped scar now embedded into his face. He folded his arms and ordered V to take over. I swallowed harshly as V towered over me with a massive axe sword clutched in his hand. I gasped as he pulled it back and ducked when he swung it at me. What I didn’t expect was that once his axe sword swooped over me, it came swinging back and hitting me straight in my hip. I was sent flying across the room and landed in a mess on the floor, twitching and trying to relocate my hip. I shakily got to my hands and feet and looked up at Lexaeus as he towered over me. I only had time to see him lift his weapon and disappeared into the shadows when it came down on me. I hid in his shadow and shot up behind him, stabbing my blades into his back. I scrambled up so I was on his shoulders and quickly stabbed my heels into, what I hoped to be a pressure point, on his neck. I fell off his shoulders as he suddenly swayed then fell flat on his shoulders with a loud thud. I lay on my back, panting as the adrenaline slowly ebbed away as I began feeling more fatigue from my recent use of my shadow form.  
Vexen was called on next when several members of the Organization worked together to heave Lexaeus out of the hall. He summoned a large ice shield and began shooting blizzard spells at me. I didn’t have much trouble blocking them, the main issue was how I was going to reach him and have my chance to attack. I decided to get closer by throwing fire spells for him to block and darted forward. I attacked with my blades but he just smirked at me and I began getting more frustrated whenever I attacked him. My blades didn’t even lay a small scratch on his shield! I attacked at his face and realized that he had to lift his shield to block attacks at his face, leaving me enough room to do a low sweep kick. And that’s what I did, sending Vexen onto his back. I heard a loud crack and Vexen cried out in pain.  
“My back!” he cried and I snickered to myself.  
“Tough luck, grandpa,” I sneered at him, enticing a growl out of pain and anger.  
I got up, brushing myself down as Saïx called III on to fight me. XI, who had a black eye now, and Luxord hauled Vexen out of the hall as III came on with several lances in the air. I began dodging and ducking as the lances flew towards me, ripping my coat and getting caught in my hair. I was thrown up into the air a couple of times whenever a blast of wind came out of nowhere. I kept landing on my face whenever the wind died down. Every time I did land, I heard the laughter of the Organization and I felt something well up in my eyes. I clenched my fists when I fell for the nineteenth time and jumped to my feet. I jumped and grabbed onto one of the lances above me. I clung onto it for dear life as it swerved and shook to get me off. I kept a close eye on III as the other five lances came swerving at me to get me off. As soon as the lance got close enough to III, I swung my legs and hit both of my feet into his face. I then swung my whole body around the lance, somewhat remembering what to do from my gym class, and threw my body onto III, clawing at his face more, making him growl in pain and punch me in the stomach.  
As I fell to the floor, Saïx decided to swap III for Xigbar. III walked off grumpily, nursing his face whilst Xigbar descended with his guns out. I used all my strength to charge at him and cut at his chest. He jumped back and ascended a couple of feet, shooting at me. I gasped and held my arm across my face, grunting when eight of his bullets landed neatly in a line across my arm. Blood dripped onto the floor and I breathed in harshly, falling to my knees as pain radiated up my arm and the fatigue came over me. Everything was getting blurry and I barely heard Saïx’s voice and an arm grabbed my good arm and pulled me out of the hall. I stared ahead blankly as Saïx dragged me to the medical room and sat me down on a bed. I winced as he pulled the bullets out.  
“Stop wincing, it’s not that painful,” he muttered as he pulled one out of my bicep.  
I winced again and began crying.   
“Why are you crying?” Saïx asked irritably as he pulled another one out.  
“Because I don’t fit in!” I cried and cried louder as he plucked the next bullet out rather harshly “Ow! Be gentler with those things! It hurts!”  
“Oh stop being so pathetic,” Saïx sighed and rolled his eyes and I backhanded him with my left hand, which wasn’t as effective as I had hoped.  
“I’m only eighteen, give me a break!” I screamed at him and yelled when he sharply pulled the last bullet out of my arm.  
He paused and looked at me with a frown.  
“Zexion is sixteen and he isn’t crying because you bit his neck off,” he said coldly.  
“I’m a girl!”  
“He’s still considered a teenager while you’re now an adult.”  
“Well excuse me for not growing up properly!”  
“Zexion lost his parents at a young age and hasn’t had motherly care since.”  
“Shut up!” I kept crying “You don’t understand anything! None of you do! Everyone’s been calling me a beast, which I’m not! I’m civilised! I don’t target humans to drink from them! I am not a beast!”  
I was reduced to a heap of sobs and pathetic sniffling. I felt him bandaging my arm and putting it into a sling after taking my coat off then grabbing my shoulder, squeezing it in what I think was meant to be comforting.  
“You’ll fit in,” he said.  
“I won’t! Everyone is so judgemental towards me!”  
He grabbed my chin and tilted my head up to his face.  
“Perhaps if you stopped whining and started acting maturely, you could fit in,” he said curtly.  
“I don’t know how…”  
“Then perhaps spending some time with me in my office might help you.”  
“How will that help?” I made sure to put a very bitter tone to my voice.  
“I’ll teach you how to grow up a little and improve your fighting skills,” he said and let my chin go “I’m supposed to look after you anyway. You’ll go into field missions when you’ve managed to grow up a little bit.”  
I stared at him for a few seconds and began giggling.  
“What are you giggling about, you were crying a minute ago?” Saïx looked truly confused.  
“You sound a bit like my dad,” I giggled helplessly “He had a poker face like you when he instructed me on what to do and what was going to happen in the future.”  
“…You’re a strange girl.”  
I just smiled up at him, wiping the tears away with my good arm.  
“Your arm will need to be in that sling for about a month. Xigbar hit you right in the pressure points, how did you not feel them?”  
I blinked in confusion then winced and jolted.  
“Ow!!!”  
“Ah, your adrenaline must have blocked it out,” Saïx concluded as I lay back with my arm spasmodically twitching.  
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!” I screamed.  
“Get a grip, woman!”  
“Painkillers! Give me painkillers!”  
Saïx plunged a syringe into me and injected some painkilling substance which made me relax somewhat.  
“There, now go to your room,” he said pointing to the door.  
I giggled at how he still sounded like my father and ran out to go to my room. As I walked along the corridors, I began wondering about how my family must be doing. I died three years ago so they must be done grieving by now, surely?  
“Hey, uh…XVI?”  
I turned to see Demyx was behind me with a friendly look on his face.  
“Xeann,” I said in a monotone.  
“Xeann, huh?” Demyx put on a thoughtful look “Then I can call you Xe-Xe?”  
I raised a sceptical eyebrow.  
“Sure, I guess,” I shrugged and Demyx hugged me.  
“Yay! Now we’re friends!”  
Woah, hold the phone, what?  
“You want to be friends with me?” I echoed as Demyx pulled away.  
“Sure, why not?” he shrugged with a goofy looking grin “You’re pretty.”  
“Thanks,” I said with a light blush “The only thing people here have called me is a beast.”  
“But you’re not a beast!” Demyx shook his head “Beasts are big and scary and hairy and have razor sharp fangs!”  
I opened my mouth and pointed to my fangs.  
“Um…bigger fangs!”  
I grew my fangs out.  
“Um…even bigger than that! Like a sabre tooth tiger!”  
I shrunk them and smiled softly.  
“How did you get into the Organization with a personality like that?” I asked.  
“I have no idea,” Demyx shrugged with a grin.  
I giggled and smiled warmly at him.  
“I like you,” I said.  
“I like you too,” Demyx beamed.  
And that’s how I made my first friend at the Organization.  
********************************************************************  
I giggled as I read through my journal in my room curiously. Memories came back to me one by one and I didn’t notice Demyx coming in.  
“Hey, Xe-Xe, what are you reading there?” he asked and looked over my shoulder.  
“It’s private,” I said and snapped my journal shut.  
“Aw, come on! Please?”  
“No.”  
“Pretty please?”  
“No.”  
“Pretty please with sugar?”  
“No.”  
“Pretty please with sugar and cream?”  
“No.”  
“Pretty please with sugar, cream and a cherry on top?”  
“No.”  
“Pretty please with sugar, cream, strawberries and a cherry on top?”  
“No.”  
“Pretty please with sugar, cream, strawberries, raspberries and a cherry on top?”  
“No.”  
“Pretty please with sugar, sprinkles, cream, strawberries, raspberries and a cherry on top?”  
“No.”  
“Pretty please with sugar, sprinkles, cream, cookies, strawberries, raspberries and a cherry on top?”  
“No.”  
“…Gimme!”  
“NO!”  
Demyx lunged for the journal and I dodged him, running away.  
“Gimme! I wanna read it!” Demyx whined.  
“NO!” I shouted at him as we ran past several members of the Organization.  
“Xe-Xe!”  
I gasped as Demyx tackled me when we ran across a bridge outside and I fell off, plummeting down into Marluxia’s cactus garden.  
“OW!!!”


	5. My First Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My first kiss and my first relationship

“I suppose it’s my job to give all the boys their first kiss.”  
My friend, Georgia, and I gave Juliet a blank look after she said her sentence. I was thirteen at the time whilst they were ten. I never fit in with my own year group. Georgia snorted then laughed out loud.  
“Seriously?” She snickered as I covered my mouth to conceal my giggle “Whatever makes you think that?”  
“Well I’m pretty and all the boys want to take me to the disco,” Juliet shrugged.  
“Oh dear lord, I hope you don’t think your job is to take away all the boys’ virginities next year,” I giggled.  
“And why not?” Juliet frowned.  
“Juliet, you’re a Catholic aren’t you?!” I exclaimed “Thou shall not commit adultery!”  
“But I’m not an adult yet,” Juliet frowned.  
“Besides it’s illegal to have sex when you haven’t reached sixteen yet,” Georgia sighed “Just promise us that you won’t go around kissing all the boys?”  
“Oh, alright,” Juliet huffed.  
*******************************  
I sincerely hope she doesn’t think like that anymore. Then again, it was five years ago, maybe she grew up a bit. Seriously, I was worried that she might have turned into a slut. I stretched my arms out above my head and yawned. After finishing a tiring mission like killing two giant Heartless in Hollow Bastion, I fancy going to Twilight Town, before Sephiroth finds me, and grabbing a nice big deer to feast on then go back to the Castle to get an early night. Wait, I need to get a report done. Oh well, Saïx can get it tomorrow, I’m exhausted.  
“Good afternoon, my princess.”  
NOOOOOOOOOOO! I brought my blades out and looked around in a panic. I heard him but I can’t see him...  
“You look exhausted today, princess.”  
“I am!” I shouted as I pivoted around “Leave me alone! I want to get an early night!”  
I saw a feather fall from the sky and looked up. I only saw a brief figure of Sephiroth and he turned into a blur, rushing towards me. I gasped and brought my blades up, preparing for an attack. I froze when I felt something cold and wet against my lips. My hands went slack and I felt my blades fall and land on the ground. I stared up in horror as I looked directly into his ice blue eyes. They gleamed evilly as I registered that he had a tight grip on my biceps. I felt sick when I registered that he was kissing me. He lifted his lips off mine and my legs collapsed underneath me. He let go of my arms and I fell to the floor, feeling rather sick and disorientated. He chuckled and I touched my lips in a daze, registering the fact that he had stolen my first kiss.  
“Oh? Was that your first time?” He asked as I stared ahead.  
My head was a mess, maybe that was his goal? To get into my head and screw around with it until I’m insane? I shivered, not noticing Sephiroth coming behind me and placing his hands on my shoulder.  
“Such an innocent soul for such a brutal beast,” he whispered in my ear.  
I was in shock, that’s why I wasn’t responding. First kisses weren’t supposed to feel like this. They’re supposed to be warm and gentle and leave you feel fuzzy inside. I felt sick, sullied and the kiss gave me unpleasant shivers. I flinched when I felt a cold glove hand stroke my cheek.  
“I’m flattered that I have this effect on you, princess,” he chuckled mockingly as I kept lying there, ignoring the dull ache of leaning on my thigh and hip.  
My eyes widened when I saw him advancing for another kiss. Without much hesitation, I got over my shock and slapped him sharply. I slammed my hand onto the ground and fell into the dark portal I summoned, landing on top of Xaldin who was resting on one of the sofas in the Grey Room. I bounced off him as he grunted and woke up then landed heavily on the floor.  
“Hey, what’s the big idea?” He growled at me in annoyance.  
“I...I...I...”  
I opened my mouth in an attempt to form words but I found that I couldn’t. So I got up and ran to my room, locking the door so I could lie on my bed then black out when the shock overwhelmed me.  
*****************************  
It was at my fifteenth birthday party that I found Georgia moping in my bedroom. She had a bored look on her face but at the same time, she looked angry.  
“What’s the matter?” I asked cautiously.  
“Harry stole my first kiss,” she grumbled.  
Oh. I grimaced and sat down beside her.  
“Well, I did warn you that he is really into you.”  
“But who does that?” Georgia snarled “You don’t sneak up on someone while they’re pinning the pompom on the Moogle and take advantage of the fact that they’re blindfolded.”  
“Um...you’re right, that is creepy,” I agreed and sighed “Well why don’t you try forgetting about it?”  
“How? I’ll always be labelled as the girl that had her first kiss with Harry Cooper!”  
“Um...Harry might become cool in the future and it won’t be so bad?”  
“We’re talking about Harry Cooper here.”  
“That’s true.”  
I sighed thoughtfully and looked at the sunset through the window. I thought to myself for a few minutes then looked at Georgia.  
“Grow up,” I said in a monotone and Georgia gave me a look.  
“What?”  
“Grow up and forget about it,” I said “You’ll be kissing a lot more men in the future until you find your perfect man. It doesn’t matter who your first kiss was, just don’t count it as your first. A real first kiss will be memorable and it will feel right.”  
*******************************************************************  
I wish I could take my own advice. The memory of Sephiroth kissing me just played over and over again. It haunted me for weeks. I sometimes forgot about it but then I’d remember it when I was in the shower or in my sleep. Of course I remembered whenever I saw him and I would run away faster than before. The brutality of his kiss, the way he talked to me afterward, the ice in his touch, that devious smirk, it was all embedded into my mind. Even when I was at the Station Tower mourning for Xion, hours after she died, I couldn’t stop remembering how he dove at me and grabbed me when he kissed me. It was so childish, I should let it go but it seemed too big of a deal to let it go. I let the tears fall from my face and down into the Station Plaza. First the Castle Oblivion incident, which got rid of Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Marluxia, Larxene and XV, then Roxas leaves and now Xion has been destroyed. What was going on? I wiped the tears away to get a grip of myself. The memory of Sephiroth’s kiss flashed through my head and I wanted to scream into the darkness. Then more horrible memories came to me. When I went to my new school and no-one would talk to me. When I was killed. When I was reborn. When I killed that innocent girl. But then I remembered meeting Saïx for the first time. I blushed and remembered that I was developing feelings for the cold Nobody. I still felt myself smile as I wrapped my arms around my body, remembering his odd split personality.  
“XVI?”  
Speak of the devil. I gasped and turned around to see Saïx looking down at me.  
“Why are you out so late?” He asked and I hugged him, crying into his chest.  
“Why do I have so many messed up memories?” I wailed my woes as he stumbled “I can’t stand it! Xion dying! Roxas leaving! My death and rebirth! You! Sephiroth stealing my first kiss!”  
“...Sephiroth kissed you?”  
I gasped and hugged him tighter as I stared behind him in realisation.  
“Is that why you’ve been acting so distant and troubled?”  
I sniffed and nodded, leaning my head against his chest.  
“And what’s so ‘messed up’ about me?”  
I slowly looked up at him and swallowed hard.  
“Um...we should get back to the castle.”  
“Answer me.”  
I flinched at the cold authority in his tone and blushed.  
“I...um, how do I put this?”  
“Just spit it out,” Saïx sounded impatient.  
“Well you know how a girl likes a boy and she isn’t sure how to, you know, tell him, so she thinks of all these different ways...”  
“Get to the point.”  
“I have a crush on you and I want to go out with you!” I blurted out and gasped, covering my mouth and backing away.  
Saïx looked quite surprised as he stared at me with his golden eyes and I felt absolutely embarrassed. I closed my eyes and hunched my shoulders.  
“I know, it’s stupid,” I mumbled, suddenly going shy and pulling my hood up to hide my face.  
Saïx took a step forward and I looked up, gasping as he lowered my hood.  
“It’s not,” he said.  
I felt my dead heart leap up to cloud nine as he kissed me gently. It was pretty sloppy but it felt nice. I felt myself melt into his arms. I felt warm and fuzzy on the inside when he pulled away and I cuddled him with a dreamy sigh.  
“This doesn’t mean you can cuddle me all the time,” he said.  
“Don’t care,” I mumbled dreamily.  
“I’d prefer to keep this relationship a secret.”  
“What?” I looked up at him “Why?”  
“It ruins my image if I have you cuddling me whilst I hand out missions.”  
I blinked at him then giggled, nuzzling him warmly.  
“Alright,” I purred “I’ll let you keep your pride.”  
Saïx just leaned his chin on top of my head and we both enjoyed the silence of Twilight Town in the night.  
**********************************************************************************************************  
The next mission I had was at Hollow Bastion and I was pretty elated from what happened the night before. I just happily skipped along the streets after doing recon and stopped by a gift shop. My eyes gleamed when I saw the fancy stationary set on display. Saïx would love that! I took a look at the price and hissed. It certainly was expensive. But looking at the other items, I saw that the shop charged pretty high prices. I opened up my purse and sighed.  
“Drat, it’s not enough,” I murmured and closed it.  
“Perhaps I can assist?”  
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


	6. Halloween Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Organization have a party

"Nothing fun ever happens around here," Demyx whined as we lounged around on the sofas in the Grey Area.

"Yeah but what can you do?" I asked dully, twirling the blunt part of Masamune I kept with me as a good luck charm.

"We can throw a party," Axel shrugged.

"Ugh," I rolled my eyes.

I hate parties. It takes a lot of organization, everyone gets rowdy and I end up being on the receiving end of a punch or kick. Plus the mess afterwards takes forever to clean up. Ugh.

"That's a great idea!" Demyx exclaimed and bounced upright "It's Halloween soon!"

I groaned. Halloween wasn't so bad. One of my guilty pleasures is dressing up but I don't really fancy parading around in a costume amongst these guys.

"So we could throw a Halloween party this Sunday?" Axel tilted his head to the side.

"What's Halloween?" Roxas asked.

"It's a sort of event where you get to dress up and play pranks on other people," Axel explained.

"Oh, so like Halloween Town?" Xion asked.

"Precisely."

I shuddered. I hate Halloween Town. Everyone there is just so…creepy…

"What do you think, Xeann?" Demyx asked.

"I don't enjoy parties and I'm not sure if Xemnas would be pleased to have one."

"Actually, I think it's a wonderful idea."

I would have screamed so loud if I had been less disciplined. Everyone snapped their heads over to the doorway and gaped at Xemnas who just happened to be listening in on our conversation. He stepped further into the room.

"It would be an excellent opportunity for the Organization to get to know one another," he said as I tucked the Masamune fragment into my Organization coat "XVI, I think you'd be suitable enough to organise this Halloween party."

"And just why is that, Superior?" I asked irritably and folded my arms.

"Well, for a start, you're a woman. Women are very organised, aren't they?"

Tch, not me.

"Larxene's a woman too," I pointed out.

"You're younger, I'm pretty sure you'd have a lot of ideas of party themes."

I held my tongue.

"So it's arranged that this Sunday, the Organisation shall throw a Halloween party," Xemnas nodded curtly to the other members then left.

As Demyx and Axel shared a hi-five, I pinched my nose and sighed irritably. That was Monday.  
***************************************************************************************************  
"So, you will all go and pick out your Halloween costumes for this party," I said dully to the other members around me "And yes, it is mandatory to wear a costume."

"Why do we have to wear stupid Halloween costumes to this party anyway?" Larxene sneered at me.

"It's for the festive mood," I answered back with an added sneer "If anyone wants it…"

I wrote down the address of the Halloween costume shop in Twilight Town and stuck it up on the wall. I looked down my clipboard.

"Right, any preferences to party food?" I asked as I ticked the next thing on my list.

"Pie!" Axel shouted.

I raised an eyebrow as I flipped a page and wrote it down.

"Make sure to have some healthy food, XVI," Zexion said next.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll make carrot sticks and buy celery for you," I waved Zexion off

"Xeann, will there be ice cream?" Roxas asked hopefully.

"Yes, I'll get lots of ice cream and I'll even make baked Alaska," I smiled down at him and looked at Xaldin "You wouldn't mind helping me with the cooking would you? I might burn something."

Xaldin snorted then shrugged, he didn't mind.

"Toffee apples are quite popular at Halloween," Luxord said briefly.

"Oh, perfect!" I exclaimed and scribbled toffee apples down.

"Oh, make some pancakes too!" Demyx cheered.

"Pancakes are for breakfast, not Halloween parties," I snapped at him and he pouted.

"But your pancakes are nice," he whined.

"Pancakes are for breakfast only!" I made my point clearer.

I scribbled down a list of sweets to put in a whole jar afterwards.

"Right, activities…"

"Apple bobbing!" Demyx cheered and Axel groaned inwardly.

"OK, apple bobbing should be sufficiently easy if Marluxia will kindly supply us with apples," I gave a sweet smile to Marluxia and he sniffed "How about a treasure hunt? I organise a mean treasure hunt."

"What are we, children?" Saïx narrowed his eyes.

I jabbed my thumb in the direction to where Axel and Demyx were chattering excitedly with Roxas and Xion. Saïx sighed as he got my point.

"Oh, a ghost hunt! We can do a ghost hunt!" I suddenly remembered one Halloween party I went to when I was younger.

"What does that include?" Zexion raised an eyebrow.

"Someone is chosen to be the ghost and that ghost hides and first person to catch him or her wins," I grinned "It's kind of like hide and seek but more fun."

There was a mutter of thoughts from the crowd and I wrote it down on the activities list.

"Pumpkin bowling!" I suddenly remembered "It's like regular bowling but you use pumpkins instead of regular bowling balls."

"Won't it get a bit messy?" Zexion wrinkled his nose.

"I'll clean it up later," I shrugged "Alright…music…"

"I wanna be in charge of music!" Demyx shouted enthusiastically.

"We'll talk about it," I said as there was a small groan from some of the other members.

"Yay! I love you, Xe-Xe!"

I grunted as Demyx jumped on my back to give me a bone-crushing hug.

"I can get decorations ready by myself and I think that's around about it for the Halloween Party meeting," I said after checking my list.

That was Tuesday.  
*********************  
"XVI, I've ordered my costume from the shop in Hollow Bastion," Saïx said as I scribbled down a shopping list for myself "I am too busy to go and retrieve it so I'd like you to go and get it for me."

"Nuh uh, I'm not going to Hollow Bastion for a stupid shopping trip," I said "Get Axel to do it."

"Axel is busy on a mission with Roxas."

"Get Zexion to do it."

"Zexion is out to get himself a costume with Lexaeus."

"Get Vexen to do it."

"Vexen is too busy."

"Get Xaldin to do it."

"Xaldin is too busy at the Beast's Castle."

"Get Xigbar to do it."

"Xigbar is at the Land of the Dragons."

"Do it another day."

"Today would be the most convenient day."

"Saïx, the moment I set one foot in Hollow Bastion, Sephiroth will try to kill me!" I snapped at my mentor with a fierce glower.

"You've survived him fifty four times, you can survive him again," Saïx folded his arms with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm planning a Halloween party here!"

"I'm planning a far more important set of missions and analysis of the Organization."

"I could get killed!"

"Here's the address and my details they'll need."

Saïx handed me a strip of paper with the address of the costume shop and left me alone in my room. I snarled and got to my feet.

"I don't get paid enough for this job," I grumbled to myself and stepped into a Dark Corridor.

The journey to the shop was uneventful. I gave the details to the store manager and raised an eyebrow at the werewolf costume Saïx had ordered. I turned to go out of the store but the moment I did, I saw the cutest black cat costume ever! And because of the Halloween sale, it was half price! I immediately picked one that was my size and tried it on. I spent about ten minutes admiring myself in the mirror until the shopkeeper.

"I have a bit of difficulty attracting customers," he said and I turned to him "May I put the cat make-up on you and take your picture to promote my business?"

"Umm…"

I twitched my nose, probably because I was already getting into the role of a cat.

"I'm not sure if that would be a good idea…" I shrugged "Nyan."

…No comment. It wouldn't be a good idea to take a photo of me then post it up all over Hollow Bastion probably because I would be recognized and expose the Organization and Sephiroth might tease me about it. But how could I resist the temptation of getting the cutest little bell with the costume if I agreed?! Soon I was outside his shop, with the cat make up on, posing for the photos. It was cold and the costume gave shorts and tights for my legs but the tights were very thin. Well, at least the fluffy top kept my chest warm.

"You look good!" the shopkeeper said as he took more pictures "Hm?"

I tilted my head as he pulled away and looked at the recent picture he had taken with a frown.

"Dressing up for Halloween, princess?"

HOLY FUCK HE'S GOT ME! I jumped when Sephiroth landed behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders.

"My, my, such a pretty kitty," he smirked "I see you don't have a collar. That must mean you have no owner. Should I adopt you?"

"I've got to go, bye!" I half-shouted as I batted Sephiroth's hands away, grabbed Saïx's costume and ran for my life.

But as soon as I turned a few corners, Sephiroth was right in front of me again.

"I would love to play a game of cat and mouse but I fear you are not playing the role of the cat properly," he smirked.

I turned sharply on my heel and ran a different route, only to be blocked again and again and again, wait… I paused for a breather in one alleyway and looked down at the bell around my neck. It was giving me away all the time! Damn it! How can something so cute be the bane of my existence when I'm being chased by a psychotic man?! I took the bell off and muffled it by clenching it in my hand then ran. It took me over two hours to finally reach the portal and escape to the World That Never Was.

"What took you so long?" Saïx asked as I stood before him, catching my breath.

I growled and shoved the costume in his face.

"Sephiroth!" I bellowed at him "I had to endure little one liners from fucking Sephiroth and avoid getting chopped into a vampire hunter's dinner!"

I panted for breath and gasped, bending down to my knees to breathe in and out deeply.

"Hey, nice costume," Axel grinned as he leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder.

"Indeed, what happened to your Organization coat?" Zexion tilted his head to the side.

I balked. That was Wednesday.  
************************************  
I stood on the step ladder in Marluxia's garden, picking apples from his garden. I was humming to myself. It wasn't any particular song, just something that I made up in head, whether it would be a cluster or notes or a medley, I'm not entirely sure. I froze when I felt something cold and slimy wrap itself around my ankle. I slowly looked down.

"Um, Marluxia?" I called to Marluxia's bedroom window when I saw a green vine wrapped around my ankle.

He passed the window but seemed too wrapped up in his prince costume to hear me. I shook the vine off my ankle then kept picking the apples. Soon the vine was there again but when I tried to shake it off it tightened its grip. I sighed and bent down to force it off with my hands.

"Stupid plants," I muttered as I struggled against the vine.

Bad mistake. I was suddenly pulled up and lifted into the air, dangling upside down. I screamed during the confusion.

"Marluxia!" I shouted.

There was no answer as I twisted and turned to try and get out of the vine's grip. When I paused to rest, my eyes widened when I saw more vines coming towards me. They began poking and prodding me, making me writhe and wriggle even more. Then they crept into my coat and began tearing it apart.

"MARLUXIA!"

One vine went around my mouth, muffling my speech. I sunk my fangs into it and this horrible fluid went into my mouth. It was absolutely disgusting but desperate times called for desperate measures. I ripped the vine apart in my mouth, spilling green fluid everywhere. I lunged for the vines that bound my wrists and ankles, tearing them apart too until I was dropped back onto the grass, covered in this green sticky and horrible goo. I sat up, groaning when I realised it had gotten into my hair. I was going to be spending a lot of time in the shower today. Maybe I could ask Saïx if I could use his bathtub so I can get a good soak. I stood up, realising that the vines had torn apart my Organisation coat. I picked up a shred and sighed.

"Saïx is not going to be happy," I sighed.

I heard a loud shriek and looked up to see Marluxia had finally heard me and came out to see what was wrong.

"What have you done to my lovely plants?!" he demanded as he pointed to the twitching dismembered vines and goo splattered everywhere.

I stared at him in disbelief and sighed, shaking my head.

"I just acted on self-defence," I explained and picked the basket of apples up "I did call for your help but you were just too slow."

I went back inside and marched upstairs to the kitchen where I stored the apples in the walk-in fridge. When I came back out, Xaldin didn't look very happy, his hands firmly on his hips and his eyebrows knotted together.

"XVI, is it really necessary to make a mess in my beautifully clean kitchen?" he asked me like a father scolding his daughter.

I looked down and saw that I had been leaving a trail of green goo behind me as I had been coming up here.

"I'll clean it up another time," I scowled "But right now, I need to get washed."

"What is this stuff anyway?" Xaldin used his mop to scoop some up and look at it closer.

"I don't know, it's from Marluxia's vines," I shrugged "You might want to keep that stuff for Vexen to analyse."

I went out, taking a bit of goo out of my hair to take a closer look. It was just…gross. It was slimy, it smelt awful and it kind of reminds me of Flubber. I eventually reached Saïx's door and knocked. Saïx raised a questioning eyebrow when he opened the door and saw me.

"Marluxia's garden," I replied to his silent question "Can I use your bathtub?"

"Can't you use your own shower?" Saïx asked tiredly.

"Saïx, I went out to Hollow Bastion to get your costume and nearly got kidnapped by Sephiroth. I have been to Marluxia's garden to get the apples for apple bobbing this Sunday and nearly got raped. I deserve to have a little bit of luxury of having a nice hot bath to get this stuff off me."

We stood in silence for a few seconds then Saïx opened the door wider.

"How long will you be?" he asked as I went in and went towards his bathroom.

"An hour perhaps?" I shrugged and poked my head into the bathroom to take a good look "May I use your shampoo and conditioner?"

"If you go to Hollow Bastion straight after to buy some more," was the curt reply.

"Alright. Thank you."

I closed the door and began running the bath. I took my clothes off, leaving them on the tiled floor. When the bath was sufficiently full, I stepped in and sighed happily when the warm water enveloped my pale body and began washing the green slime off me. I lay soaking and daydreaming as I normally do. I then located Saïx's shampoo and conditioner on one of the shelves by the bath but I had to stand up to get them. But as I did…the door opened. I froze and saw Saïx staring at me, rather stunned.

"Oh! Ah…"

"GET THE HELL OUT, YOU PERV!"

That was Thursday.  
*********************  
"Axel, could you get those bat decorations on the top shelf for me, please?" I asked Axel as I failed to reach the decorations I wanted.

"Certainly, princess," Axel chuckled as he reached up and grabbed them, dropping them in the shopping basket.

I snarled at him and walked down the sweet aisle, picking random packets and dropping them in the basket.

"Oh! Oh, oh, oh!" Axel suddenly bounced up "Can we get Terry's Chocolate Oranges?"

"Terry's Chocolate Oranges are for Christmas, so no," I grumbled and dropped a packet of Roses Chocolates into the basket.

"Oh, please!"

"No."

"Pretty please!"

"No."

"Please, please, please!"

"No."

"I'll throw a tantrum."

"Axel, you're a grown man!" I snapped at him "I feel like a daughter having to take care of her father who has maturity levels which are deteriorating at an alarming rate!"

Axel went quiet and pouted. Rolling my eyes, we headed over to the till where I stacked the items onto the conveyor belt and took out my purse.

"Can I get chewing gum?"

"One packet."

Axel placed a packet of chewing gum at the end of the line and I began packing the scanned items into the shopping bags. I paid the amount of money needed for the shopping and had Axel help carry them back to the Castle That Never Was. That was Friday.  
***************************************************  
I pulled out my first attempt of making a blueberry pie from the oven and placed it on the kitchen table.

"Alright, Xaldin," I turned to the taller member "How does it look?"

"Undercooked."

I blinked as he carefully cut himself a slither and cautiously tasted it.

"Absolutely horrible," he commented as he spat out his mouthful onto a napkin and placed the slither back down "Did you put any sugar in it?"

…Oops. I sighed and sagged my shoulders.

"I told you I needed help with making it," I muttered as Xaldin began setting up the ingredients for another blueberry pie.

"Start dunking the apples into the toffee for the toffee apples," Xaldin said and I began sticking sticks into half of the apples I managed to retrieve from Marluxia's garden.

Zexion walked into the kitchen with Hamlet tucked under his arm and wandered over to the fridge, grabbing a glass and a carton of milk.

"Hey, Zexion," I said and offered him a toffee apple "Want to try one?"

"Certainly not," Zexion said as he placed the milk carton back into the fridge "I question your talents in the kitchen for someone who doesn't eat regular food."

I clenched the stick in my hand tightly and set my jaw.

"Psst, Xaldin," I whispered to the chef "Are you sure that pie isn't edible at all?"

"That thing you call a pie doesn't even look edible," Xaldin replied.

I felt myself grin deviously.

"Oh, Zexy~!"

"Please don't call me…"

SPLAT!

That was Saturday.  
***********************  
"Happy Halloween, everybody!" I cheered when I was finally finished with putting the decorations up.

Surprisingly enough, there was a festive cheer throughout the crowd and I went first in the apple bobbing. I cheated a bit by extending my fangs to snare an apple. I was so happy that everyone made the effort to dress up for the party. Even Xemnas dressed up as a devil… Axel decided to take the mick out of me by dressing up as Count Dracula, the idiot… After the apple bobbing, I walked over to Demyx, who was dressed as a merboy, afterwards who was choosing which music was playing on the stereos.

"No Aqua," I said and snatched the CD he was holding.

"Aw!" he frowned and I pressed a Michael Jackson CD into his hands.

After saving everyone from listening to Barbie Girl, I wandered over to the food table where Xaldin, dressed up as a Native American Chief, was with Vexen, who was dressed up as a doctor. I reached over and grabbed a toffee apple, one of my secret pleasures. I bit into it and noticed Vexen was fiddling with a weird looking box.

"Vexen…" I said cautiously after swallowing my mouthful "What is that?"

"An experiment…" Vexen muttered.

"Vexen! This is a party! Leave your experiments in the lab."

"Oh, hush, girl," Vexen snapped then flicked a switch "The change will only be temporary after all, perhaps only for eight hours."

"Change? What change?"

I yelped as the box began making weird noises, attracting everyone's attention.

"IV, what are you doing?" Xemnas frowned and I yelped when a bright light blinded my eyes.

I landed on my behind with a surprised yowl as everyone exclaimed when the light hit their eyes.  
************************************************************************************************  
I woke up on the floor, feeling rather relaxed and content. I yawned and let out a satisfied purr…wait, I actually purred? I straightened up and felt my ears twitch when I heard someone down the corridor. Wait, my ears? I slowly raised my hands and clapped them around my fake ears for the cat costume…and felt that they were now genuine cat ears. I yowled and jumped up to my feet and saw my tail, now part of my body, swishing around in agitation.

"What's going on?!"

Turned into…

"Nyan nya nya?!"

…

"What?"

"Nyan?"

Oh my fucking god, I can't talk!

"What happened to my voice?!"

"Nyan nyaaa nya nyan nyaaa?!"

I kept meowing and yowling as I turned in circles to take a good look at my tail and myself. What on earth did Vexen do?! I heard more noises from down the corridor and ran down to see a vampire Axel laughing at Xion and Roxas.

"Oh, you guys just look absolutely ridiculous!" he barked as Xion jumped off her unicycle.

"Guys?"

"Nyaa?"

Everyone looked at me and Axel howled louder.

"Oh, Xeann's actually turned into a real life neko girl!"

"It's not funny!"

"Nya nyaaa nyan!"

Xion and Roxas began giggling with Axel and I hissed at them in contempt. Axel wiped the tears away from his eyes.

"Don't worry, I think old Saïx looks goofier being a big bad blue werewolf."

"What?"

"Nyan?"

I tilted my head to the side and yelped as an ear-splitting howl echoed in the castle.

"Axel, I think he heard you!" Xion yelped as we heard loud lumbering footsteps.

"Run!"

I ran after them as they took off. The footsteps got louder and louder until…

THWUMP!

"Ow!"

"Me-OW!"

I heard heavy breathing as a deadweight landed on top of me, squashing poor little me. I looked up and saw a large blue werewolf. He turned me onto my back and pinned me down, his golden eyes staring down at me curiously. It was obviously Saïx, he still had his scar. His tail began wagging happily and he licked my face happily. I yowled and struggled and he let out a dangerous growl. We stared at each other and I yowled again when he tossed me over his shoulder and lumbered off with me kicking and screaming.

"Help me!"

"Nyan nyaa nyaaaaaaa!"

He carried me outside to the garden where he placed me in between his front paws and licked my hair up. Yeah…he was acting like such a puppy. He sniffed me curiously before mounting me…and he began humping me.

"Hey!"

"Nya!"

I yowled as I struggled underneath him. He growled louder and nipped my ear sharply. I yelped and squirmed all the more. He got off me, picked me up by the scruff, which paralysed me temporarily, and shook me like a dog with its favourite toy.

"Somebody help me!"

"Nyaa nyan nyaa nyaaaaaaaaa!"

Saïx then dropped me and I took no chances. I ran for my fucking life and virginity. Saïx howled and bounded after me as I skidded around the corridors of the castle. I skidded to a halt when I spotted Xigbar limping around in the hallways after being turned into a mummy. Saïx pounced but missed me and skidded down the corridor, crashing into Xigbar and getting tangled in the bandages. I took a sharp turn and ran off away from them. Soon Saïx, with some bandages around his arm, began running after me again.

"Help!"

"Nyaan!"

I screeched to a halt again as I turned the corner and crashed into Lexaeus's leg, who had been turned into Frankenstein. Saïx turned the corner and slammed into Lexaeus, knocking them both over. I ran away as they began fighting. I crashed into Luxord, who had been turned into a pirate, after a couple of staircases.

"Ah-harr!" Luxord unsheathed his sword "A black cat! It is said that black cats bring bad fortune…"

I narrowly missed getting my ear chopped off and scrambled into the nearest room. I froze when I saw Marluxia, turned into a prince, locked up in a cage and tilted my head to the side with a curious frown. He spotted me and crouched down.

"Here, kitty," he whispered and beckoned towards me.

"I have a name, dimwit."

"Nya nyaaa nyan nyan nyaaanyan."

I walked over towards him anyway, now on my hands and knees and he tickled my ears. Oh, did it feel so good! I purred and leant against the bars as he kept tickling my ears.

"What is that noise?"

I looked up when a shadow covered my face and stopped purring when I saw it was Larxene, turned into a witch. She smiled eerily and grabbed me by the scruff, pulling me away from Marluxia.

"I've always wanted a familiar," she said and placed me in front of a bowl of some sort of food "Eat up, you need your strength."

For…what? I yowled as she pulled some of my hair/fur out and jumped out of the window on instinct. …Which probably wasn't a good idea because I landed right on top of Saïx. He pinned me down again and I scratched his nose. He yelped and backed away whilst I ran for my life again. But as I turned another corner, I was hit in the face by a pie. As I wiped the pie off my face, I saw a ghost turned Zexion floating with a smug smirk on his face.

"Revenge," he said coolly.

"You son of a bitch!"

"Nya nyaan nya nya nyan!"

Zexion disappeared just when Saïx landed on top of me, grabbed me by the scruff and padded upstairs. I was too tired and stroppy to fight so I just folded my arms and pouted. He carried me into his room where he snuggled me and fell asleep, lying half on top of me. He was quite warm so I just closed my eyes and went to sleep. That was Sunday.

So I woke up in Saïx's bed with Saïx cuddling me and Xemnas lying next to us. I went rigid as I felt that I was back to normal but Saïx's grip was crushing me. I raised a hand and prodded his chest. His eyes flickered open and he let go of me, pushing himself away.

"What are you doing in my bed?" he asked suspiciously.

"You dragged me up here," I scowled "I'm just wondering how Xemnas ended up here."

We glanced at the sleeping Superior and Saïx took a look at his clock.

"It's still early."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I pushed against him as he grabbed me and cuddled me again.

"Ssh," Saïx mumbled grumpily.

I blinked, shrugged and cuddled into him for the next couple of hours. That was Monday.  
********************************************************************************************  
I stared at the advertisement poster indifferently. The costume shop owner had chosen a picture and had posters up everywhere in Hollow Bastion. I was doing my cat pose whilst Sephiroth landed behind me, posing with that vicious smirk of his. Who knew he'd be quite the photo bomber?

"Hello, princess."

Oh fuck. I turned my head as Sephiroth landed behind me and smirked.

"Ever wanted to be famous?" he asked.

"Quite frankly, no," I replied.

"Such a pity."

He summoned Masamune and I ran. That was Tuesday.


	7. I Hate Christmas

I hate Christmas. I scowled as I somehow ended up on my back with my wrists tied together with cello tape. I sucked at wrapping up presents so why was I even doing this? Oh yeah, Axel!

**************************************************************************

“Are we seriously celebrating Christmas?” I scowled to myself as Demyx sat on Axel’s shoulders to reach the higher branches of the Christmas tree that Marluxia brought in.  
“Uh, yeah!” Axel turned his head as he passed Demyx some tinsel “What’s the matter? Bit of an old Grinch are ya?”  
“Yes, yes I am.”  
Demyx gasped as he turned his head to me next.  
“But Xe-Xe! Don’t you like getting the presents?” he pouted.  
“One, it’s childish to only like Christmas for the presents,” I held up one finger with a raised eyebrow “Two, Christmas is also about all that religious stuff and God does not get along with vampires. Three, actually I never really got the best presents for Christmas. If I wanted something, I’d have to get money to buy myself something.”  
“Wow, you really are a Grinch,” Axel blinked as he turned around fully, ignoring the frantic Demyx on his shoulders who was waving his arms around like a manic to keep his balance.  
“That and I spent the last three Christmases out on the snowy streets like Oliver fricking Twist.”  
Demyx fell off Axel’s shoulders with a gasp as Axel hissed sympathetically.  
“Ouch, didn’t you at least visit your parents?” he asked as I stared at Demyx in alarm then glared at Axel.  
“I told you, my strictly religious family would never accept a vampire, even if it was their daughter, they would never let me back in. Not even for Christmas.”  
Demyx and Axel gave me an overly sickly sympathetic look and I clenched my fists, glaring furiously at them.  
“Stop looking at me like that!” I bellowed at them which made them jump “I’m fine! Really! I never even liked Christmas when I was still human! It’s not like I missed out on anything when I was condemned to a life of wandering the streets and sucking the life out of living creatures!”  
My fist pumped as I yearned to just punch their faces, just make them give me a look that wasn’t out of pity nor sympathy. Then Axel said it.  
“Maybe you should try to get into the spirit at least. For your friends.”  
I lurched forward, fist raised and it just stopped inches away from his nose. I wavered as I heard Demyx’s whimper then stormed off.

**************************************************************************

Seriously! He’s like a grumpy, boring, annoying dad! If I wanted one, I would have happily broken into my parents’ house to face their music. I sighed and brought myself into a seating position, tugging at the cello tape and staring at the window. With a huff and a pout, I hunched my shoulders moodily.  
“XVI?”  
I froze up when I heard Saïx’s voice by the door.  
“XVI, your report is late.”  
I stared at my desk where my unfinished report was.  
“I know you’re in here, XIII saw you come in here.”  
I stared at the presents and wrapping up paper.  
“XVI, if you do not open this door, I’ll be coming in.”  
All of a sudden, my body moved. I swerved my body to scoop up my mess, because apparently my ankles got bound by cello tape too, and shoved all the paper and presents under my bed. I then frantically tore at my bounds before hearing the swish of the Dark Corridor. So in a desperate attempt to conceal the fact that I was being un-Grinch for this year, I rolled under the bed with the paper and froze as I saw Saïx’s boots come into view. I watched as they marched up to the desk.  
“Typical, she has had all night to write her report but has been wasting her time…”  
I scowled as his boots marched up to my bedside table and pulled open a drawer.  
“Well…that’s unusual, she hasn’t been wasting her time writing in her diary.”  
My eyes widened and I resisted the urge to cover my face and groan. Saïx has been reading my diary?! Why?! Why?! Well, I suppose he told us to write in our diaries for a reason but I still wrote some really REALLY private stuff in there! Oh my God, he knows about my fear of clowns and puppets and how I once hid in my wardrobe to avoid cross country and oh no. He must know about my dreams! I wrote every single detail EVERY single detail! I was brought out of my thoughts when Saïx placed the diary back into my drawer and walked out of my bedroom. I poked my head out of the bed and spotted the scissors under my desk. Perfect!

**************************************************************************

I wasn’t sure what to get for Xion. But she seemed fascinated with seashells and a lot of things, like a child in a toy shop. So I got her an encyclopaedia centred around marine life, full with a lot of coloured pictures for her to look at. I crept into her bedroom with the sort of neatly wrapped book and tiptoed across to her bed, placing it on her lap. She stirred and I dove under her bed before she could spot me. I paused when I heard her sigh and rustle a bit more before her breathing grew back to normal. Not taking any risks, I scuttled out of her room in a rather crab fashion.

**************************************************************************

Now, Roxas just seemed damn curious like Xion so I decided to get him an encyclopaedia that was about land life and other places where I thought he’d be interested in. I tiptoed into his room, held the present together carefully and placed it next to his head. He stirred and I side-stepped behind the Christmas tree Axel had set up in his room. After his breathing fell back to normal, I poked my head around the Christmas tree and saw Roxas had snuggled up to his present. With a smile, I tiptoed out of the bedroom.

**************************************************************************

I tossed Larxene’s present up and down in my hand thoughtfully while staring at her doors with a grimace. Taking a deep breath, I crept into her room and carefully made my way across to her bed, slowly placing the small box next to her pillow. I yelped as one of her kunai suddenly scraped my cheek and I managed to jump away to avoid being thunderbolted. Thank God I decided to ditch the coat whilst playing Santa Claus. That coat was just too heavy to move around in.  
“What are you doing here?” Larxene snarled and I scowled at her.  
“A very merry Christmas to you too,” I sneered and she spotted the gift I left her.  
She picked it up and tore the wrapping paper off, quite easily too.  
“Nice wrapping, princess.”  
“Shut up!”  
She opened the box and quirked an amused eyebrow, a small smirk crawling onto her face. I had gotten her a golden necklace with a lightning bolt charm. I folded my arms and puffed my chest out.  
“I heard that Christmas is a time where people put their differences aside,” I said as she cackled “Shut up! I have presents for everyone so don’t feel special!”  
“You act like such a child,” she said as she picked up the necklace and fingered it thoughtfully.  
I huffed and turned on my heel to flounce off.  
“And princess?”  
I turned my head and gave her a fierce, if not somewhat childish, glare.  
“Merry Christmas.”  
I faltered a bit then smiled softly.  
“Yeah, Merry Christmas,” I muttered and left.

**************************************************************************

I heaved Marluxia’s present onto his bed and had to sit down on the floor to catch my breath. For Marluxia, I bought him some fertilizer, a pretty heavy bag too, hopefully he won’t overdose his whole garden with it so we have giant vines raping everyone. The incident at Halloween made me shudder and I got up and tiptoe out of the room and tripped over a vine. I watched with wide eyes when I saw the vine coil around my ankle and tried to pull me away and into the garden. Damn Marluxia and his security system! I scrambled around, my hand flailing around to try and grab something that would set me free. I managed to find a spare blade for Marluxia’s scythe and began hacking away at the vine around my ankle. The blade sliced nicely through the vine, green goo being spurted everywhere, and I scrambled up to my feet and got the hell out of there.

**************************************************************************

Luxord was pretty easy actually. I smiled as I left a bottle of some English wine and an assortment of tea samples on Luxord’s bedside table. I looked around the room and sighed to myself. Even I didn’t make a mess of a room like his! I sighed and shook my head, shrugging my shoulders. Tis the season to be jolly, I might as well clear his stuff away. So I went to work to pack his items into his drawers and sort out his clothes and coats in his wardrobe. I felt myself pausing whenever Luxord snored rather loudly and smirking. When I was finished tidying up, I crept out of his room with a satisfied smile.

**************************************************************************

I carefully balanced Demyx’s present in my hands, careful not to spill the water and set it down on his bedside table. The little goldfish danced around his little castle and I smiled whilst placing the fish food by the tank and tiptoed out of the room. I glanced back at Demyx again and he snuggled deeper into his blankets more. I smiled. He was such a child. I’m not sure if I saw him through the eyes of a mother or an older sister. Either way, I just wanted to cradle his head and just protect him from the cruel world. Hey, if he acted a bit more mature then I wouldn’t feel this way. With a shrug, I carefully closed his door.

**************************************************************************

I carefully stalked across Axel’s room with the boxes of incense I had got him for Christmas. If the immature man who acted like my annoying dad wanted to set things on fire, then at least he can set these alight freely and not have to get into trouble for making the castle all smoky and horrid. I placed the box next to his pillow where he stirred and I smiled. Then I noticed the mistletoe hanging over his bed and I jumped out of the way before Axel could fully move himself under it. I scowled at the stupid plant before storming out. I hate mistletoe. 

**************************************************************************

I thought it would be better to wait for Saïx to fall asleep so I could sneak his present into his room so when I saw him writing at his desk, I tiptoed past his room to Zexion’s room. I crept into the teen’s room and smiled as I saw him curled up in his bed with a book over his face. If he wasn’t so grumpy, I’d call him cute. I decided to buy Zexion the Count of Monte Cristo, the original French version. I scowled, I always hated French but I knew Zexion liked to study different languages so I thought it would be a nice idea to get a classic book for him in a different language. I placed the book next to him and he immediately snuggled up to it when he recognized that it was indeed a book. I smiled and petted his hair before tiptoeing out.

**************************************************************************

I carried the massive box into Lexaeus’s room and set it at the foot of his bed. I sighed and stretched my arms out, glancing at the Silent Hero. I knew Lexaeus had a small hobby with modelling and loving to paint dolls and figurines. Well, I gave him at least ten sets for his amusement, it was a pretty good sale that went on in the shop I visited. I smiled as the giant snored loudly and giggled before creeping back out of his room to prepare the next present.

**************************************************************************

I shivered, wishing I did have my coat on, as I scuttled into Vexen’s frozen room with his present. I carefully placed the deodorant next to his pillow. What? He stunk of sweat, the scientist really could use some deodorant to cover the body odour smell. Zexion will thank me. With a smirk, I tiptoed away until he snorted and I dove behind one of his science counters where he did his experiments in his room and peeked over to see Vexen turn on his side and sighed in relief when he didn’t wake up. My foot knocked something over and something very cold went on my leg. I yelped, saw Vexen stir and bolted out of the room. I looked down and shook my foot to try and get rid of the blue substance on my foot. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to hurt me but the skin was dyed pretty thoroughly.

**************************************************************************

I carefully placed the heavy and massive cookbook next to Xaldin’s pillow and let out a sigh. I would have done more body building if I had known I was going to give some heavy presents for some of the members. I flexed my muscles a few times before walking off. Hearing Xaldin snort, I shot into his wardrobe and watched from the creak of the doors. Xaldin woke up and saw the present. Curious, he sat up and placed it on his lap, tugging the bow off and quirking an eyebrow. To my annoyance, he began reading it and I had to wait for half an hour until he finally dropped off and tiptoed out of his room. Well at least he liked his gift I guess.

**************************************************************************

I was especially cautious to enter Xigbar’s room with his present. I saw him snoring away blissfully on his bed. I spied the mistletoe over his bed and carefully placed the box on his bedside table. He snatched my wrist, I yelped and he sat up.  
“Why aren’t you wearing your costume?” he frowned and I glowered at him.  
“I don’t have a costume, wait, why do you want me to wear a costume?”  
He gave me that perverted grin and I shuddered.  
“Well, I was thinking of a sexy Ms Santa Claus who would come and give a poor old man a kiss,” he drawled and I snatched my wrist back.  
“I hate Christmas, I don’t like the idea of being Ms Santa Claus and I don’t give old men kisses,” I snarled.  
“How can you not like Christmas?” Xigbar frowned.  
“Just open your present, you old pervert,” I snarled and he grabbed the present I got him.  
Xigbar tore the paper off and blinked as he picked up the assortment of eye patches I gave him. I shrugged.  
“I don’t know what you like apart from big boobs,” I explained “I didn’t really want to get anything like Playboy Magazine or anything like that so I thought some spare eye patches would do.”  
There was a Christmas themed eye patch, Halloween themed, Easter themed and I did a custom themed one which Xigbar picked up curiously.  
“Use your good eye to take a look inside,” I muttered and fidgeted.  
When he did, a perverted smirk crept onto his lips and I flushed.  
“That’s Larxene’s underwear I borrowed,” I muttered darkly “Her bras are far too small and uncomfortable for me but I thought you’d appreciate it anyway. Don’t show it to anyone, I’m just hoping you’ll get die of a heart attack one day!”  
“Can’t,” Xigbar lifted the eye patch “No heart, remember?”  
I scowled and turned on my heel.  
“Well, enjoy it. If you keep that then I don’t have to kiss you under any mistletoe!”  
Xigbar sighed in disappointment as I stormed out.

**************************************************************************

Xemnas’s door creaked open eerily and I poked my head into his room, looking around. Right, he was nowhere in sight, nor was he in bed. I carefully took long quiet strides towards the bed and reached out to place his present on his bedside table.  
“XVI, what are you doing in my room?”  
I screamed and jumped, turning around to see Xemnas had been by his window, staring up at Kingdom Hearts. I breathed in and out harshly, placing a hand on my dead heart to calm myself. Xemnas walked towards me, frowning softly.  
“You’re not wearing your coat?” he said.  
“All the better to sneak around,” I muttered.  
“You have your shadow powers.”  
“That takes up a lot of energy.”  
“Well you could have improved your stamina by using your shadow powers to sneak into my room.”  
I faltered and bowed my head. I felt his glove clad fingers tip my chin up, forcing to meet his amber gaze.  
“Are you afraid of the darkness, Xeann?”  
I shivered softly as he rolled the name he had given me on his tongue. I moved my face away but he snatched my chin with his index finger and thumb, jerking my face back to meet his gaze.  
“Are you?”  
“Yes.”  
I blurted out the honest answer and tried to shuffle away but his grip was tight.  
“Hm. Why are you afraid of the darkness?”  
I looked up at him and sighed.  
“If I fall too far then I cannot come back and become human,” I replied “If I can’t become human, I’ll never go back to my family.”  
“Is it really important for you to return to your family?”  
I glowered at him.  
“Of course.”  
“But you’ve been dead in their eyes for three years. Surely you’ve been forgotten?”  
He was circling me now.  
“Would they remember you? I’m sure you’ve changed so much. After all, you were fifteen when you died?”  
He paused behind me and I growled.  
“They will remember me,” I said.  
I turned and met his eyes. He gave me a cool look and I pressed the present into his hands.  
“Merry Christmas,” I said and stalked off.  
To Xemnas, I gave him a platinum necklace with an X charm on it. 

**************************************************************************

Saïx was still awake so I ventured out to Hollow Bastion. I shuddered at the cool breeze and glared at the present in my hands.  
“I hate you, Axel,” I muttered “I didn’t really need to give him a present but I might as well.”  
If I could make up with Larxene for the day, then why not Sephiroth? …I have a feeling that this is a suicidal move.  
“Sephiroth,” I muttered “Come out, come out wherever you…”  
“Good evening, princess.”  
“ARE!!!”  
I screamed as he appeared behind me and turned on my heel, staring up at cold blue eyes. He smirked coldly and I shoved his present into his chest. He looked confused and I glared at the floor.  
“Merry Christmas,” I snarled softly and he opened his present with interest.  
His lips parted slightly as he took out a silver coloured scarf and looked at me.  
“A scarf?” he said.  
“I didn’t know what to get you!” I hissed.  
But he placed a finger on my lips and smirked.  
“Look up.”  
I did and I balked. Mistletoe. On the archway above us. Mistle-fucking-toe. FUCKING MISTLE-FUCKING-TOE!!!!!! I glared at Sephiroth.  
“No.”  
“But we must.”  
“No.”  
“Come now, princess.”  
“No.”  
“Get into the Christmas spirit.”  
“Proposal, you may kiss my hand.”  
“Counter proposal, a light kiss on the lips.”  
“Counter proposal, you may kiss my nose.”  
“Final proposal, we kiss each other’s cheeks.”  
“Deal.”  
I flushed. Am I really letting Sephiroth kiss my cheeks? Yes, I realised as cold lips brushed my flushed cheeks. He lingered and I leaned up to kiss his cheeks. I stepped away, not missing the way he had raised his hand to touch my face. I turned around and marched off.  
“Merry Christmas,” I muttered before disappearing into a Dark Corridor.

**************************************************************************

Saïx is gone! I poked my head into his room and tiptoed in. I crept towards his bed and lay his present on his pillow. I had bought him a stationary set with extra paper and fountain pens. I crept back to the door and jumped when Saïx appeared in the doorway, blocking my exit.  
“XVI, what are you doing in my room and where is your report?” he asked.  
Oh shit, my report!  
“I’ll go and do it now,” I squeaked as I tried to squeeze past him.  
As we traded positions, we heard a small bell and looked up. There was some mistle-fucking-toe hanging over Saïx’s doorway.  
“Fuck,” I cursed.  
“We could always ignore it.”  
“Has that security camera always been there?”  
Saïx took a look at the security camera that had been positioned next to the mistle-fucking-toe.  
“No, I sense that this is Axel’s fault.”  
The wanker! Only I need to go to Saïx’s room to deliver late reports or work with him! He set this up! Oh, I should have captured a Heartless and given that to him for his Christmas present!  
“Can we still ignore it?” I asked.  
“I suspect Axel won’t let it go when he sees the footage of that security camera.”  
“…”  
I yelped as Saïx snatched my arm and pulled me into a tight embrace. I flailed a bit and blushed when I felt cool lips brush both of my eyelids. I stumbled with a very red face and didn’t miss the soft smirk that crawled onto the Diviner’s face.  
“Merry Christmas,” he purred softly and closed the door.  
As I landed in a seating position on the floor, I stared up at the camera. It occurred to me, Saïx made it look like he had just given me a massive kiss on the lips. With a flushed face, I got up and walked back to my room.

*************************************************************************

“Xe-Xe!”  
Oh, why can’t Demyx just act like an adult for one day? I woke up a bit more when my doors slammed open and I cracked my eyes open.  
“Merry Christmas!” Demyx cheered and began jumping up and down on my bed.  
“Go away, Demyx,” I mumbled sleepily.  
“It’s Christmas!”  
Oh God. Axel began jumping up and down on my bed too and I covered my head with a pillow.  
“Shove off, I’m sleeping.”  
“Oh, oh! You have presents, Xe-Xe! Santa Claus has been to you too then!”  
Oh if only Demyx knew, wait what, I have presents? I sat up slowly and blinked at the pile of presents next to my bed.   
“Um…I have presents?”  
Axel and Demyx slid off my bed as I fashioned a toga out of my blanket and crawled over, picking up the top one. Indeed, it said that it was addressed to me. I opened the package and smiled when I pulled out a bracelet with seashells. I looked up at Xion who came in with Roxas. I smiled as she and Roxas opened their encyclopaedias to look at them. I tried the bracelet on and smiled.  
“Open the others!” Demyx shouted eagerly then shoved a present into my hands.  
I stared at the present with a raised eyebrow and opened it to pull out a cute little kitten with a red ribbon around it. My eyes bulged. I loved kittens. After placing her down, I glomped Demyx and hugged him tightly. Demyx hugged back and I smiled as Axel cooed over the kitten.  
“Open this one next!”  
I yelped and managed to catch the present Axel tossed at me. I tugged it open and quirked an eyebrow when I saw he had gotten me perfume.  
“You know, when you go out on your date with Saïx,” Axel winked and I slapped him.  
“It’s bad enough you set up mistle-fucking-toe absolutely fucking everywhere!” I snarled and he just grinned.  
“Xeann…”  
I looked down at Roxas who handed me his present. I picked it up and unwrapped it, smiling when I saw he had bought me a necklace with a little key at the end. I kissed his forehead sweetly which made Axel demand a kiss so I kissed his forehead to humour him. Then Demyx wanted a kiss so I kissed his forehead too then I kissed Xion’s forehead so she wouldn’t be left out. Tch, tis the season to be jolly or kissy?  
From Larxene, she sent me gloves. Not woolly gloves, silk gloves, the princess type. Rolling my eyes I placed them to the side and opened Marluxia’s present. I balked and Axel gave it a weird look. It was a plant of sorts but I recognized the vines. I placed that in the far corner of my room. From Luxord, I was given a tea set. I laughed as Axel insisted that we had a tea party and he ran off to Luxord’s room to get some tea bags. From Zexion, he gave me a songbook, instructing that I have someone to teach me how to sing because apparently I go off key too many times for him. I scowled as Demyx frowned.  
“Well, I guess I could teach you,” he shrugged.  
“P.S.” I read aloud “Don’t let Demyx teach you.”  
“What?!”  
Xion and Roxas giggled as I shrugged and showed Demyx the card. From Lexaeus, I got some red sparkly high heels. I scowled.  
“Not all girls like shoes,” I muttered as I picked them up “What are these for anyway? Am I going to audition for the part of Dorothy?”  
“Well, there are some songs from the Wizard of Oz in your songbook,” Demyx said as he flicked through my songbook.  
From Vexen, I got a chemistry set. I scowled. I’ve always hated chemistry. From Xaldin, I got a batch of freshly baked mince pies. They were absolutely delicious and we had them with the tea party that Axel insisted we should have. From Xigbar…um… My eyes bulged as I pulled out a lingerie set and Axel howled with laughter.  
“If this fits me then I am training Ebony to kill anyone who tries to get into my room to measure me,” I muttered.  
It did. The cup size was the right size and it was actually comfortable. I blushed brightly as Axel wolf whistled. Demyx helpfully covered Xion and Roxas’ eyes as I went into my bathroom to get changed into my tank top and shorts. From Xemnas, I got this cute moonstone hairclip. From Sephiroth, I got a black choker with a ruby. From Saïx…  
“Wow, that’s so pretty,” Xion smiled.  
I held up the red dress to my figure and blinked dumbly.  
“He got me a dress?” I muttered with red cheeks.  
“He is so taking you on a date!” Axel howled and I sighed, shaking my head.  
“Wait, there’s a card.”  
I picked up the card and tilted my head.  
“Huh, apparently there’s a party happening this evening, formal wear,” I said.  
“Oh, I might have gotten a dress too!” Xion exclaimed and she and Roxas bolted out of my room.  
I just admired the red silk and smiled to myself.

*************************************************************************

So with Larxene’s gloves, Lexaeus’s shoes, Xemnas’s hair clip, Sephiroth’s choker and Saïx’s dress, I actually looked like a princess. It took me a couple of hours to untangle my hair and get it clean and shiny. Larxene took me by surprise with her curlers and make-up and helped me get ready for the formal occasion. We gave Xion a makeover too, I never thought I’d enjoy such a feminine event. Xion looked so cute in her little white frock, decorated with blue snowflakes. Larxene had a rather revealing dark green dress that actually suited her. Larxene insisted that I had to have blusher on but I insisted that only eyeliner and lipstick will be fine for me. When we entered the Grey Room, I had to laugh. Demyx and Axel were in tuxedos! Aw, and Roxas looked so cute in his tuxedo too.  
“Xion, you look pretty!” the little blonde Keyblade wielder said.  
“You look funny,” Xion replied and Roxas blushed.  
“Well, this suit is very uncomfortable but Axel said I had to wear it,” he muttered.  
“Xe-Xe!” Demyx came flying towards me and hugged me “You look pretty!”  
“You look too immature for that tuxedo,” I said back and he huffed.  
Even Axel had tied his red spikes back! I giggled but it faded when Axel offered a glass of wine which I declined.  
“I’m allergic to alcohol,” I muttered.  
“Oh, sorry, I think Xemnas did have some non-alcoholic wine.”  
Axel went to the refreshments table and I spotted Saïx. I shook off any thoughts about him being handsome in a tuxedo and made my way towards him. He glanced at me.  
“I see you like my present,” he muttered.  
I smiled and spun around.  
“I didn’t expect you would have a fine taste in dresses,” I said with a grin.  
Saïx frowned.  
“I was talking about the hairclip. I didn’t send you the dress.”  
I blinked and reached up to feel the hairclip.  
“Well if you sent the hairclip then who sent the dress?” I asked and looked around the room.  
I caught Xemnas’s gaze and looked at Saïx.  
“No, Xemnas actually bought the dresses and tuxedos for everyone?” I whispered and Saïx shook his head.  
“No, Larxene and Marluxia went to buy everyone their costumes for the evening.”  
If that was so, why is Xemnas staring at me? I shook off his stare as Saïx and I began talking. Axel brought me the non-alcoholic wine which I sipped delicately. Eventually, I decided to go outside for some air. I looked up at the dark sky, fingering the rim of my wine glass. I was so absorbed that I didn’t even notice someone coming up behind me. I jumped when tanned fingers went on my shoulder. I turned and saw Xemnas staring down at me.  
“Are you enjoying yourself?” he asked and I nodded.  
“I see you like my present.”  
I snapped my head up.  
“So you did send the dress to me, but why?”  
“I thought it would be the least I could do for the present you decided to give me.”  
I stepped away when he reached out and stroked my cheek.  
“It’s lovely, thank you,” I muttered.  
“It shows your figure beautifully.”  
I blushed.  
“Yes, well I supposed the coats hide away most of my curves,” I muttered.  
Why was this so awkward?  
“Let’s walk.”  
I nodded and followed him around the city. It felt awkward as we didn’t talk and I kept feeling that amber gaze on me. That amber gaze which burns darkly.   
Are you afraid of the darkness?  
Yes, I’m terrified. I wanted to laugh. A creature of darkness that’s afraid of the darkness. It sounded ridiculous. When Xemnas stopped, I stopped a few paces away and turned to him, confused to why he abruptly stopped.   
“Your drink is finished, would you like me to refill?”  
He took out a bottle of wine and I shook my head.  
“I’m allergic to alcohol…”  
“It’s non-alcoholic.”  
Well, why not? I walked over and offered my empty glass for him to refill. As he did, I couldn’t help but notice his eyes wander to my choker.  
“Who gave you your necklace?” he asked.  
“It’s a choker,” I muttered “Sephiroth got it for me but I have no idea how he managed to get it delivered.”  
“Sephiroth? The one-winged mercenary from Hollow Bastion that’s been tormenting you?”  
“Well, I gave him a scarf, I wasn’t sure what to give him.”  
Why was Xemnas standing so close?  
“It’s very becoming on you.”  
“Thank you.”  
I raised my glass up to my lips and sipped and looked up to avoid looking into Xemnas’s eyes…oh fuck. I froze when I saw mistle-fucking-toe above us. I swear, that plant is constantly stalking me everywhere! I mean who would put up mistle-fucking-toe in the middle of the City That Never, wait, Axel. Of course. I looked up at Xemnas with alarmed eyes when he leaned in closer. Wait, is he? No. Really? No. What? No! I’m not kissing Xemnas! The wine glass slipped from my grip and Xemnas grabbed my arm. My form melted into my shadow and I fled. I shot back to the castle and headed to my room. But I hovered at the door, suspecting that this will be the first place Xemnas would look for me. So I went upstairs and went back into my solid form in the library. I fled into the darkest area of the library and fell into a fetal position in the corner. I fell asleep rather quickly.

************************************************************************

I woke up rather disorientated with a blanket covering me. I looked up and saw Zexion sitting on a chair, reading his new edition of the Count of Monte Cristo with a French dictionary next to him. I sat up, realising I was on a sofa and rubbed my eyes.  
“Ugh, morning,” I muttered.  
“Hangover?” Zexion sounded so smug.  
“No, I didn’t consume alcohol. I did overextend my shadow form ability though, that can exhaust a girl.”  
Zexion looked up from his book. I rubbed my eyes and growled when the eyeliner got smudged.  
“What were you using your shadow form for?”  
“I…ditched someone at the mistletoe in the City.”  
“Odd place to hang mistletoe,” Zexion commented.  
“Well, I think it was something Axel set up,” I muttered and wiped the eyeliner off the glove.  
“Of course. Out of curiosity, who did you ditch?”  
“None of your business,” I snapped and got up “I’m just really tired, I should clear my face up and I feel horrible.”  
I melted into my shadow form and disappeared down into my room. I threw off my dress and got ready to get into the shower. My curls disappeared almost immediately when the warm water soaked my body. I couldn’t help but think about last night. Could it have been possible that Xemnas was a bit drunk? The makeup ran off my face as I scrubbed myself. I mean, what was he thinking? He must be decades older than me! I stepped out when I finished washing and scrubbing, taking a towel to wrap around myself. Ebony mewed and padded up to me when I came out of the bathroom. I filled her water and food bowls and cleared out her litter box. She purred and I smiled down at her.  
“Now, how can I train you to kill Axel?” I asked as I crouched down and tickled her ears.  
She purred and I smiled wider. The door knocked.  
“XVI?”  
Shit, it’s Xemnas! I jumped to my feet and did a bit of a tap dance to decide what to do. When the door handles turned, I summoned a Dark Corridor, ran through it and bumped into Saïx.   
“XVI, what are you doing?” Saïx said and I jumped back.  
“Um…uh, I was running away from someone and I guess I accidentally summoned a Dark Corridor into your room…” I spluttered and looked around.  
“Who were you running away from?”  
“Not important, um…”  
I blushed when I realised I was only in a towel and looked up slowly at Saïx.  
“Can I just dry myself off and borrow one of your coats?”  
Saïx raised an eyebrow and I bit my lip.  
“You haven’t even finished your report from Christmas Eve.”  
“I’ll do extra paperwork if you let me hide in here for a while.”  
I pouted and Saïx sighed irritably.  
“I’ll start sorting some work out for you,” he said as he pulled out one of his coats from his wardrobe.  
Without thinking, I bounced onto my tiptoes, kissed his cheek and rushed into the bathroom to get changed. Saïx’s coat was rather big and heavier than my coat. I zipped the coat up and had to pick up the ends to be able to move around without dragging it around. Saïx slammed a pile of papers onto the desk and I began working my way through it. It wasn’t long until the door knocked.  
“VII?”  
I fell over once in my rush to hide in the wardrobe. I leaned against the back of the wardrobe, watching through the creak of the doors. Saïx opened the door and Xemnas step into the room.  
“Have you seen XVI?” he asked.  
“I sent her on a mission,” Saïx lied and I sighed quietly in relief.  
“I see…”  
Xemnas looked towards the wardrobe and I closed my eyes when I remembered that my eyes had a very strange habit to glow in the dark. I held my breath and released it when I heard Xemnas leave and sank to a seating position. Saïx opened the wardrobe and looked down at me.  
“Did something happen with the Superior?”  
“I don’t want to talk about it.”  
There was a pause and Saïx helped me up to my feet.  
“You can’t avoid him all the time.”  
“I just don’t want to talk about it now. Time should get rid of the awkwardness.”  
Saïx stared down at me then stepped away.  
“Fine, just don’t drag me into the mess.”  
I nodded and went back to work. After a few pages of work sorted, I looked over to my mentor.  
“Thank you,” I smiled.  
“You’re welcome,” he returned with a small smile.  
I blushed and looked away as he went back to his work. I twirled a strand of hair thoughtfully.  
“Saïx?”  
“Yes?”  
“Please, don’t read my diary ever again.”


	8. Termination

Late! I’m late! For a very important date! And that stupid Heartless in Wonderland made me late! I’m going to be in so much trouble! I ran into Demyx on my way up to the tower. We both fell to the floor harshly, shaking our heads and staring at each other.  
“Xe-Xe!”  
“We’re late!”  
We spoke and got up at the same time. I snatched Demyx’s hand and dragged him up the stairs. We reached the tower and it seemed Xemnas hadn’t started speaking yet. With a soft sigh, I walked up to stand in between Saïx and Axel. Demyx lingered behind and I looked up at Kingdom Hearts, where everyone was staring at the moment.  
“The time has arrived.”  
I jumped slightly when Xemnas abruptly spoke but kept a blank face like everyone else. He raised his arms as if to offer a prayer to the giant golden heart in the sky.  
“And at long last, we see before us the great collection of hearts,” Xemnas continued speaking “Hearts full of rage…hate…sadness…and bliss. Shining down upon us is the crystallisation of all hearts – Kingdom Hearts. There, in the sky, hangs a promise of a new world.”  
He lowered his arms and turned to us.  
“My friends!” he spoke and I fought the urge to just raise a sceptical eyebrow “Let us gain further power to conquer the human heart, and claim it as our own. Let us remember why we are here and what we hope to achieve.”  
Is it me, or do I feel like I’m a part of some cult right now? Xemnas had quite the voice to give speeches and to lead this organization but by his tone, I felt like I had been roped into some weird cult that I would never join in a million years. …Can vampires live up to a million years old?  
“Hearts shall be gathered,” that strong powerful voice broke my reverie once more “and be made our own. Hearts shall never again have power over us.”  
Hearts. That was what the Organization’s goal was. To make Kingdom Hearts to create new hearts for us all. But, why was there this little part of me that didn’t believe Xemnas? Am I really doubting his words? People began leaving and I turned to leave too. But something rooted me to the spot and I found myself counting the members that we had left. I only realise now, there are ten members left but weeks ago, we had sixteen. Ten members sounds like a big number but it felt like a huge chunk of the Organization was gone. Was it really necessary to send those seven members along to Castle Oblivion with only Axel coming back as a survivor? Axel was even responsible for two of those deaths.  
“XVI.”  
I jumped and felt myself blush when I realised I had lost myself in my thoughts again. I turned to Xemnas.  
“I apologize, I’ve been thinking a lot lately,” I said and was about to leave when he spoke my number again.  
I turned around fully and looked up at Xemnas’s cold amber eyes.  
“I have heard that XV escaped Castle Oblivion.”  
My eyes widened.  
“You mean she’s alive?” I whispered.  
“It seems VI’s death distraught her so much that she fled the castle,” Xemnas explained.  
“How do you know of this?” I asked.  
“The Dusks are useful spies. They never lie.”  
He leaned in close to me.  
“Keep an eye out for her,” he ordered.  
“And if I find her?”  
“Terminate her.”  
I gaped at him and stepped back.  
“Is that a problem?” Xemnas seemed angry at my body language.  
“She is just a child,” I whispered “Cast away from her family since she was four years old. Raised by…by wolves who died just before she fell to the darkness.”  
“She is a threat to the Organization.”  
“She’s only eleven years old,” I was still arguing, why was I still arguing? “I can’t kill a child, I just can’t.”  
“Can’t or won’t?”  
“Send someone else to do it, I couldn’t possibly…”  
“Wolves and vampires are enemies, are they not?”  
My eyes flashed in anger at the mention of wolves. It was hard enough to say the word without snarling but I was beyond caring now.  
“It would be appropriate for you to terminate her as you yourself have said, she was raised by wolves. She smells of a wolf, acts like a wolf and has instincts as a wolf.”  
He was saying wolf too many times, was he trying to spark my anger? Because it was working.  
“Are you really passing the opportunity of killing a wolf?”  
“No!” I suddenly snarled at him and bared my fangs “Fine! I’ll terminate her! Just stop saying that word.”  
My mind was clogging itself up with thoughts of how vile, barbaric and filthy wolves were and I stepped back, glaring at Xemnas. He had that smirk on, as if his lips were about to utter that one word again. Before he had the opportunity, I turned on my heel and flounced off back into the castle.

************************************

So I went on with my missions as usual, keeping an eye out for the small figure of XV. Roxas left the Organization, he killed Xion and disappeared. Saïx and I began out relationship with one another. Sora, the Keyblade Master and Roxas’s human form, woke from his slumber and was now exploring the worlds again. And then finally, I found her.

********************************************

I walked across Hollow Bastion’s plaza, my mind deep in thought. Sephiroth hadn’t appeared lately, I wasn’t complaining. It was pretty peaceful and I didn’t have to come here with fear in my heart anymore. I smiled to myself as I held a small silver chain that had a silver heart charm attached. I sometimes got little presents for Saïx just for the sake of it. Sometimes, he’d return the favour. I giggled, feeling like a little schoolgirl with a hopeless crush.  
“Xeann!”  
I turned my head, a faint smile still on my lips. It faded when I recognized the small girl that stood in the plaza with me and I pocketed the chain with a small grimace.  
“XV,” I said as it ran up to me.  
“What, can’t remember my name?” it gave a lopsided smile.  
“Of course I do, Laxes.”  
It was better to not give something a name if you were going to kill it after all. You shouldn’t even give it a pronoun other than ‘it’.  
“What’s with the sombre look?” it tilted its head to the side innocently.  
“You’ve been gone from the Organization for quite a while,” I chose not to reply.  
“Well, I had to get out of there,” it shrugged “And Axel tried to kill me too, I wouldn’t really want to return to the Organization.”  
“Then why approach me now?” I asked.  
“Because, I guess I know I can trust you.”  
Oh the poor child.  
“Really?”   
“Yes, you’re like the mother I never had.”  
I wanted to melt into the shadows and slink away but I saw a glint of yellow then Xigbar’s shadow disappearing. I felt paralysed. If I left it and went back, what would Xemnas do to me? I looked down at that eager green gaze and swallowed.  
“Really?” I kept speaking and tried my best to mask my unease.  
“Xeann, is something wrong?” it easily picked it up despite my efforts to hide it.  
With a grimace, I shook my head.  
“No, I’ve been really tired out lately,” I lied through my teeth “Ever since the Organization’s number has dropped, I’ve been taking on more and more work as I am practically Saïx’s secretary.”  
It laughed. Then with a sombre sigh, it bowed its head.  
“I miss him,” it mumbled.  
“You miss being bossed around by Saïx?” I quirked an eyebrow.  
“No, I mean Zexion.”  
I grimaced. I was aware that they had become romantically involved. This kid acted real mature for its age. I looked down at the tiles, rubbing my fingertips together thoughtfully.  
“Abandon the Organization.”  
Huh? What? I looked up to meet its determined gaze.  
“It’s only a matter of time until the Keyblade wielder kills them all,” it said “I don’t want you to be in that number.”  
“I can’t just abandon them,” I said “They’ll come after me too.”  
“What have you got to lose?”  
Saïx.  
“My perhaps only chance in becoming human,” I replied “And my friends.”  
“Don’t tell me you’re still friends with VIII?”  
I gave a single nod and it snarled.  
“How could you?! Don’t you know that…?”  
“He killed Vexen and was responsible for Zexion’s death, I know,” I interrupted it “But he was under orders, he would have been eliminated himself and someone else would have killed them.”  
“He was ordered to kill the traitors! Zexion wasn’t one of them!”  
It went silent as I summoned my shadow blades and brought them up to get ready to attack.  
“I have orders,” I kept speaking as it stepped back “I must eliminate you, you’re a threat to the Organization.”  
“Why you?!” it raised its voice at me.  
“It’s completely appropriate,” I spoke “You were raised by wolves and you act like them, smell like them and you even have their instincts. But think of it as this way. You’re not fighting Xeann, your mother figure at the Organization. You’re fighting the vampire beast that you hate with your very being.”  
“Xeann…”  
I narrowed my eyes.  
“Please, don’t hold back. Defend yourself. Use your survival instincts to try and kill me.”  
It got my hint. I didn’t want to kill it. I wanted it to survive. I wanted it to kill me instead. I would rather die at its hands then to leave it and face punishment or kill it. And I blacked out as the beast within me reared its ugly head.

*******************************************

I stormed through the castle corridors, tears streaming down my cheeks. I sobbed and choked as I found my room and went to the bathroom, stripping and turning the shower on full blast. I sank to a sitting position and brought my knees tight into my chest. I stayed like that until Saïx walked in and turned the shower off. I looked up at him as he stared down at me and took his hand when he offered it to me. I didn’t register much else until we were sitting on my bed, I was wrapped up in a towel and he was trying to talk to me. I suddenly burst out into tears and he jumped.  
“I killed her!” I sobbed and covered my face in despair “I killed a poor innocent child!”  
I was brought into a comforting hug and I just blacked out from exhaustion. The guilt of my murder lifted eventually, I kept on thinking to myself that she was in a different world of non-existence, reunited with Zexion. Now whenever I think of her, I imagine her in a white robe, reading peacefully with Zexion. I smiled up at Kingdom Hearts one night when I couldn’t get to sleep and uttered.  
“I’m sorry, Laxes.”


	9. My Stupid Birthday

The clock struck midnight in the Castle That Never Was and I opened my eyes. I felt the small, soft, purring ball of black fluff on my lap and reached over to stroke Ebony, making her purr louder.  
“Happy New Year,” I mumbled to no-one in particular “And Happy Birthday.”  
Yup, today’s the day I turn nineteen. I sat up and placed Ebony next to me to get up and dressed. I walked out and nearly tripped over a small white box that was outside my room. I stepped around it and stared down at it with a frown. No-one knows my birthday and I clearly said to Axel that I hadn’t intended to attend the New Year’s Eve party. I rolled my eyes. New Year’s Eve was the worst. Everyone on my birthday would have hangovers and I would have a silent birthday. Georgia and Juliet threw a party on the 2nd of January but it just wasn’t the same. I bent down to take a look at the box and my eyebrows raised up in alarm. There was a Happy Birthday tag stuck to the blue ribbon. Someone knew when my birthday was. But how? I carefully picked the box up and began thinking who would know when my birthday was.  
“Saïx,” I suddenly growled out.  
He must have seen it in my diary! Oi, if you’re still reading you creep, I swear I will castrate you and feed your junk to the Heartless! I made my way to Saïx’s room and knocked rather loudly. Eventually a tired and irritated looking Saïx came out and gave me a cranky look.  
“What?” he snarled.  
“Is this from you?” I asked and held the box out to him.  
He blinked blearily at it.  
“No,” he grumbled “Is that what you woke me up for?”  
“You’re the one who read my diary, you’re the only person who knows my birthday,” I huffed as I tugged at the Happy Birthday tag “Wait, unless you told other people? You did not tell anyone when my birthday is, did you?!”  
Saïx winced at my shrill tone and glared at me.  
“No, I didn’t. And I’m not the only one who reads the diaries, Xemnas checks them monthly.”  
I dropped the box in shock and my eyes went wide.  
“Why does he do that?” I asked quietly as Saïx yawned.  
“To check our status as Nobodies,” was the tired reply “Originally, I was against giving you a diary but then again we’re supposed to treat you the same as the others and he was interested to see what goes on in the mind of a b-”   
He paused and looked down at me.  
“…Of a vampire,” he corrected himself.  
I sighed and hunched my shoulders. I stared down at the box and looked back up at him.  
“I don’t want to open it if it’s from him,” I said.  
“Then give it back.”  
“What do you think he’ll do if I did?”  
We stood in silence and Saïx rolled his shoulder.  
“Open it here, if it makes anything better.”  
I picked the box up and shakily pulled the ribbon off, sliding the lid off. We both raised an eyebrow when we saw blue fabric and I placed the box down to pull it out, revealing a beautiful dress. I swallowed and looked at Saïx who just blinked blankly.  
“A dress? What would I need a dress for?” I asked softly.  
Saïx gave me a look and I shrugged.  
“Maybe you’re going to go to a world where you’ll need a disguise,” he suggested.  
“The Organization never wear anything other than coats unless the world requires them to change their appearance,” I said.  
“XVI, I need sleep. You’ll get my present in the morning.”  
He slammed the door in my face and I jumped, scowling at him. I folded the dress and placed it back in the box then noticed a small card. I picked it up.  
Happy Birthday  
Please meet me at the Station Plaza at 8:00 sharp  
Wear the dress  
The card slipped from my hands and I stared at the dress with a grimace, unsure on what to do.

********************************************************

I ended up in the dress with my gloves that Larxene gave me. I stroked Saïx’s hairclip softly and placed it in my hair. I turned to the box and smiled. Saïx had gotten me a dagger with a sheath that I could strap to my thigh. It was so thoughtful, I pecked his cheek to thank him only to get sternly scolded. After strapping the dagger to my thigh, I twirled around on the spot thoughtfully as Ebony danced around me curiously, pawing at the skirt. I smiled as she mewed and filled her water and food bowls. I stood up nervously, shaking at the thought of having to dress up for Xemnas. I glanced at the clock and swallowed. It was five to eight. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath then summoned a Dark Corridor. My pulse was racing as I stepped through it and appeared at the Station Plaza. I found myself folding my hands together and closing my eyes to pray to God that I’d be able to survive this meeting. The minutes slipped away quicker than I wanted them to.  
“XVI.”  
I tensed up when I heard Xemnas’s voice and looked up when I heard footsteps come toward me. I swallowed and lowered my hands, clasping one on top of the other and placing them in front of me awkwardly. I looked up at Xemnas who decided to put on a formal suit.  
“Sir,” I spoke softly in reply.  
He offered me his arm and I hesitated before taking it and letting him lead me away. I didn’t speak as the awkward silence hung between us. We reached a restaurant and I looked up at him.  
“Sir, I don’t need to eat,” I murmured and felt myself grow embarrassed by his cool gaze.  
“Eat what you can,” was his order and we were led in, taken to a table that he had reserved.  
He pulled a chair out for me and I carefully seated myself, feeling quite tense at how this felt an awful lot like a date. He ordered wine, non-alcoholic for me. Well so he claimed but as I raised my glass, I could smell it. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at the way Xemnas watched me from his side of the table and placed it down.  
“It’s got alcohol in,” I accused with a hint of malice.  
“You’re not allergic to alcohol.”  
Oh right, he read my diary. Damn it! I gritted my teeth and asked for a glass of water instead. I fiddled with my hands on my lap as Xemnas looked at me and I sighed.  
“What is this?” I asked.  
“Your birthday treat.”  
“You take all members out to eat when it’s their birthday?”  
“You’re the only one who wrote your date of birth down in your diary.”  
I swear, I will never write down anything too personal in that damn diary ever again. I took the glass of water once it was placed down and sipped it. Xemnas kept watching and I focused on the tablecloth to avoid feeling awkward.  
“You’re not underage, so why do avoid drinking alcohol?” he asked.  
“I am repulsed by the thought of drinking,” I replied simply “My father often came back home late, drunk as a skunk. Drinking is bad for your liver and brain as well.”  
“One or two glasses of red wine can’t harm you.”  
“Then there’s the question of my tolerance.”  
“Just a sip.”  
I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he trying to get me intoxicated? His gaze burned into me and I placed my glass of water down and reached for the glass of wine. The smell of alcohol made me scrunch my nose in disgust briefly before I took a tiny sip. I winced at the taste and placed it down, swallowing the wine. He seemed a little bit satisfied but I didn’t dare touch that glass of wine again. I did however surrender to the urge to tuck into the nice, succulent, juicy steak that was the main course. I love steak! And after being deprived from it after three and a half years, I ate it quite quickly with the best manners I could muster in my hunger driven state. After dinner, Xemnas took me to Hollow Bastion where he pointed out the different worlds in the sky that we have yet to discover at the Organization and mentioned that he’ll be sending me out on recon for those worlds. I chose to remain silent whilst he spoke.  
“XVI?”  
“Yes, Sir?”  
“Happy Birthday.”  
“Thank you, Sir. It’s been a wonderful evening.”  
Please tell me I’m dismissed and I can go back to sleep.  
“Would you say attraction is an emotion?”  
Say what now? My eyes bulged and I felt frozen to the spot as his amber gaze was trained on me. I swallowed and shook my head.  
“If anything, it would be an instinctual thing,” I said “Love would be an emotion tied into attraction.”  
“I see.”  
We stood in silence until he finally took me back to the castle and bid me farewell at my bedroom door. I felt the tension ease out of my body the moment he disappeared around the corner and went into my room.  
“Surprise!”  
I screeched as Axel, Demyx, Roxas and Xion sprung up and gave me the shock of a lifetime. I leaned against the doorway, catching my breath and stared at them.  
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked softly.  
“Happy Birthday, Xe-Xe!” Demyx cheered and I groaned.  
“Who told you?” I muttered, even though I had a feeling I knew the answer.  
“Oh, I caught Saïx giving you your present and teased him about you two being lover and all until he mentioned that it was your birthday and felt obliged to give you a present,” Axel grinned.  
I knew it.  
“SAÏX, I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU WHEN I FIND YOU!!!!!”


	10. Attack of the Mary-Sues

I always loved the internet. It was fun to browse through different blogs and catch up with a bit of news from Twilight Town. I use it often when I visit the Internet Café. Nothing like a hot beverage and browsing online at sunset, when I am at my weakest, to calm down after a week of missions, dodging attacks, being drained from my overuse of shadow manipulation and having Saïx on my back with my late reports. To avoid any suspicion, I normally put on normal clothes because it would look really out of place to be wearing a heavy coat in the middle of a café where everyone could see me. This particular Sunday, however, will continue to haunt me and wish that the internet had never been invented.  
“Hey, Xeann,” Axel said as he, Xion and Roxas passed me from the Station Tower “What are you doing here in Twilight Town? I thought you’d be in your room with your stack of unfinished reports.”  
“I don’t have a stack and as it so happens, I finished my report this time,” I retorted “Well, after fighting with Ebony to not tear it apart.”  
Ebony seemed to love to tear up paper. Maybe getting her some toys would be convenient.  
“So you’re picking quite the inconvenient time to be relaxing?” Axel jabbed a thumb towards the sunset.  
“No, I normally go to the Internet Café here,” I shrugged.  
I had never seen Axel tense up so much and his eyes widening dramatically. Xion and Roxas shared a confused frown and I cocked an eyebrow.  
“Something wrong there, Flamesilocks?” I teased.  
“The internet is the most horrendous thing a person could ever invent,” Axel muttered and shuddered, as if the word ‘internet’ was a forbidden word.  
“How can you not like the internet?” I asked incredulously “That’s like saying, ‘I don’t like things that are convenient. And easy. I don’t like having access to all of mankind’s recorded discoveries at my fingertips. I don’t like light. And knowledge.’”  
I imitated Axel’s voice to the best of my ability but it wasn’t that brilliant. It did, however, make Axel step behind the Keyblade wielders.  
“Run far and run fast,” he whispered “It’s evil!”  
“Axel, I’m not going to abandon my little weekly activity just because you hate the internet,” I folded my arms.  
“What’s the internet?” Xion asked curiously.  
“Come along, I’ll show you two,” I waved a hand to signal for them to follow me.  
“No, you two!” Axel said as he grabbed their hoods so they couldn’t move further than a step away from him “Once you get sucked in, there’s no getting out!”  
“Axel, it’s not like the computers are going to eat them,” I sighed impatiently.  
“No, the internet’s going to eat them!”  
“You’re being ridiculous.”  
“Trust me, princess, you do not want to expose these poor children to the internet!”  
“Well, I never believe something until I see it, so let’s go,” I raised an eyebrow.  
“Just type in my name with Roxas’s and search it,” Axel instructed “Then you’ll see!”  
He dragged the Keyblade wielders into a Dark Corridor, leaving me rather befuddled. What could possibly come up if I typed up their names?

*************************************************************************************************************************

Holy Mother of God Almighty, tear my eyes out right now. I closed the window with heated cheeks and covered my eyes.  
“I really didn’t need to see that,” I whimpered underneath by breath then grabbed my coffee, chugging it down.   
I coughed slightly and shook my head to get rid of the images that now loitered in my memories. Seriously?! Who stalks a lanky dude with red spiky hair with his friends, takes pictures of them then draws pictures of them naked, kissing and God knows what else? I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose. Thank you, Axel, for ruining the internet for me. I sat back, ordered another coffee then opened a new window to do my usual browsing. But something went wrong, the whole computer screen glitched. I jumped slightly, hoping that I hadn’t made the computer get a virus just by looking up Axel and Roxas. The mouse then began moving by itself and soon I ended up on some website with lots of stories and pictures. All related to Organization XIII creepily enough. Have we been breached? I yelped as the screen rippled and a hand came out. The internet really is going to eat me! I fell over in my chair, catching the attention of a few looks as a girl with bright orange hair with blue highlights (seriously, not a good look) and bright sparkly pink eyes crawled out of the computer and blinked prettily at me. Wait, her skin’s sparkling too. Is this a Twilight vampire? I scowled at the thought of Twilight. Horrible inaccuracy on every bloody page.  
“Who are you, where the hell did you come from and why the sparkles?” I asked as she simpered delicately and gracefully slid the rest of her body from the screen and landed on the floor, winking flirtatiously.  
“My name is Amberlicious Skyler!” she curtseyed in her horribly light green mini skirt.  
Wow, what kind of parent would name their child that? I got up and backed away uncertainly as everyone else just stared at her.  
“How…what…what?” I gaped as I tried to get my mind running properly.  
“I’m a Keyblade wielder and I’m the best in the whole universe!” the girl giggled and summoned a bright neon pink and green Keyblade “Ta-dah!”  
She tossed her curls (wait, since when where the curls there?) and winked.   
“I may look like I’m twelve years old,” she said (she acted so much younger though) “But I’m actually eighteen!”  
She giggled shyly and bit her lip. I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow.  
“If you wanted applause, I’m afraid you’re going to have to turn to children for that,” I said coolly.  
“Why you!” the girl gripped her Keyblade and began wailing “Why do you have to be so mean?!”  
Is she actually crying? Turns out, she was and…her tears were purple. …And sparkly. …And attracted everyone’s attention as they crowded around her. Before they could all beat me up (I saw a couple of murderous glints in eyes) I backed out of the café and ran.

***********************************************************************************************

“Axel, I forgive you for saying that you hate the internet,” I said once I found him in his room “But please, warn me before you tell me to do something like that.”  
“Ah, I should have known,” Axel grimaced “Children always disobey their parents. You naughty girl, Xeann.”  
“I’m nineteen and you just admitted to being old,” I scowled and folded my arms moodily.  
“Oi!”  
“But something weird happened afterwards,” I continued speaking as Axel sat up “Some girl fell out of the computer screen.”  
“Say what?” Axel raised an eyebrow “Aw, come on, Xeann! Don’t tell me any scary stories about the internet. I’m already terrified.”  
“No, this actually happened,” I grimaced “A girl came out of the computer screen. …And somehow she managed to find her way here to the castle.”  
“What?” Axel stood from his bed.  
There was a loud crash from above our heads.  
“Death to the Organization!” was the loud cheer which made my spine run cold and my ears ring.  
We stared up at the ceiling then looked at one another.   
“Axel!” a breathless Demyx ran into the room and slammed the door shut “Run, run for your life! We have a Mary-Sue on the loose in the castle!”  
“Mary-Sue?” I frowned as Axel’s eyes widened.  
“What?” he said and looked down at me “You let a Mary-Sue into our world?!”  
“This is all your fault by telling me to search for you and Roxas on the internet!” I jabbed a finger into his chest accusingly.  
“You should have never gone on the internet in the first place!” Axel said as he shoved my shoulder.  
“The internet was perfectly fine until you gave me your input!” I snarled then turned to Demyx “Demyx, can’t we just kill her and get this over with?”  
“Mary-Sues are impossible to kill,” Demyx said with a nervous look “The last time we had a Mary-Sue on our hands, we managed to hold her down and convert her into a regular person then chucked her into Twilight Town.”  
“And that was right before she found the computer room to spawn more of her kind,” Axel sighed “Speaking of which…the computer room is above my room.”  
After an awkward moment in silence, I suddenly felt violently sick.  
“This is all your fault!” I growled again at him.  
“Hey now, let’s not start pushing the blame here!” Axel said “Let’s get her out of the computer room before…”  
“It’s too late!” Xigbar shouted as he poked his head through a Dark Corridor “The Mary-Sue has spawned a whole army! We’re doomed!”  
“Xiggy!”  
Xigbar’s scream of terror will always haunt me and chill me right to the bone. I swallowed softly.  
“Are they really…that bad?” I whispered as we backed away from Axel’s door when it began getting thumped.  
“They are known to destroy worlds,” Demyx said as he hid behind us “Their damage is more devastating than the Heartless’!”   
“Quick, help us get out of here!” Axel tugged on my sleeve desperately.  
“How?” I hissed “If we use a Dark Corridor, we might accidentally end up in the middle of their army!”  
“You have shadow teleportation powers, right? You’ll be able to see before landing us somewhere safe…” Demyx whimpered.  
“I’ve never taken passengers with me before!” I said.  
“I’d rather get trapped in shadows for the rest of my life than having to face them so let’s take that chance!” Axel tugged at my sleeve more.  
I rolled my eyes, grabbed the boys by the shoulders and managed to sink us all into our shadows and drag them out of the window just as the door slammed open and Axel’s room filled with so many bright, sparkly and crazy people. I felt my head twinge in pain whilst travelling up the walls of the castle, looking for a safe place to retreat to. As it turns out, a nice safe place was the Altar of Naught. We landed in the middle of the white floor and I held my head.  
“Argh, I feel like my head’s going to get split in half,” I groaned as the boys got up.  
“I don’t think we’ll be able to be safe for long, so what now?” Demyx muttered as I rolled onto my back to get into a more comfortable position.  
“Is there any way to get rid of them at all?” I asked.  
“Well, we could fix them as regular people but that would take a while,” Axel grimaced.  
“Yeah, they bite, kick, scream, impersonate our weapons, impersonate our personalities, beg for mercy, offer their bodies, use random superpowers…”  
“Yes, I get it!” I groaned, interrupting Demyx.  
“Oh good, I was running out of fingers,” Demyx muttered.  
“How about we grab one and have Vexen study it?” I suggested.  
“How do we catch Mary-Sues?” Axel grumbled “They’re invincible!”  
“Everything has a weakness, surely they have a weakness?!” I grumbled.  
“No, Mary-Sues are designed to be overpowered, flawless, attractive, invincible, lucky, smart, knowledgeable…”  
“Stop with the listing, Demyx!”  
I sat up and closed my eyes, trying to cope with my headache. I took a deep sigh and turned to them.  
“Let’s take a Dark Corridor down to Vexen’s lab, he might have an idea.”  
“Supposing we run into them again?”  
My head began ringing as there was a loud cheer of girls (and boys?) and Axel whistled.  
“They’re charging out of the castle,” he said as he and Demyx looked down from the tower “And going to different worlds…”  
“They’re going to take over all the worlds now!” Demyx shrieked and yelped when I smacked him for making my headache worse “This has turned into a crisis!”  
“There’s no way we’ll be able to catch and change them now,” Axel muttered and bit his lip nervously.  
“That would have taken forever anyway,” Demyx whined “I wonder if anyone’s survived the onslaught.”  
“Great, Axel, check for survivors, Demyx, get Vexen and discuss how to get the Mary-Sues in his lab to study while I just lie here and pass out from this stupid headache!”  
I felt myself snarl the orders and the boys stared down at me with wide eyes.  
“What if we get caught by them?” Demyx whimpered.  
“My head is hurting so much, that I’m experiencing my first hangover here,” I growled at them “You’ve played enough zombie survival games, right? Think of this as one!”  
“I’m no good at fighting!” Demyx whined.  
“Then run!”  
The boys exchanged a look.  
“What if they come up here?” Axel asked uncertainly.  
“Then I’m doomed, but then again they might be able to put me out of my misery,” I grumbled.  
“They’ll push you in deeper into your misery,” Axel muttered.  
“Just go!”  
A couple swirls of darkness later and I was enjoying the peace and quiet. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, the dull ache in my head fading away slowly. 

********************************************

“Time to wake up, sleeping beauty.”  
What? My eyes flew open when some warm lips touched mine and my instant reaction was to punch the attacker in the face. I rolled over, covered my lips and stared at the young man who was nursing his face. Wait, his cheek isn’t bruised. I punched hard enough to knock a tooth out! That’s not fair! How is that even possible? He chuckled dryly and tossed his glittering purple hair. Seriously? Purple hair? And it’s glittering? His skin’s glittering too, unless he’s wearing body glitter.  
“I like them feisty,” he winked.  
“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded before wiping my lips.  
He bit his lip and pulled a sexy look. I cocked an eyebrow. Nope, not going to happen.  
“Stay back,” I readied my blades “I’m warning you…”  
“Oh, want to play a little rough, do you?” he grinned and pulled out a massive hammer out of nowhere.  
Screw this, run! I ran down the altar, blades dismissed. He cat-called, wolf-whistled and shouted innuendos at me throughout the whole chase. I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going, I was more focused in getting away from the rapist. I did gain my bearings eventually and began making my way towards Vexen’s lab. The whole place was a mess from the rush of the Mary-Sue army. I wonder how long I’ve been asleep… I crashed into Vexen’s doors to discover that they were locked. I panicked and knocked frantically.  
“Damn it, Vexen!” I shouted “Let me in!”  
“Trapped, like a little canary bird,” that silky voice reached my ears and I grimaced.  
“Vexen!” I shrieked louder.  
“My name is Ragnarok.”  
“VEXEN!!”  
“Now, shall we begin?”  
“Vexen, I swear to God, I’m going to be feeding you to the whole army of Mary-Sues if I survive this!”  
The door cracked open, snatched me by the collar and yanked me in. I stumbled onto an examination table and saw Zexion with a surgical mask, shining a light into my eyes.  
“Eyes normal like XVI’s,” he said then pulled a strand of hair out and jogged over to some machine which scanned it “…Hair is normal like XVI’s.”  
He came over and pricked my finger, my eye twitching with the soft pain. He took a spot of my blood and went over to a different scanner as I sucked my finger tenderly.  
“Blood is normal too,” he muttered “Xeann, will you donate a skin sample please?”  
“And how could I do that?” I asked with a soft glare.  
He held up a fingerprint scanner and I raised an eyebrow. I took my glove off and gently pressed my index finger into it.  
“Ow!”  
I pulled away when a quick light ran across the scanner, which turned out to be something to slice a patch of skin off my finger, to suck it softly as Zexion took a look at the results that got printed out.  
“Normal too,” he nodded “Good, you haven’t been contaminated. In addition, we got vampire DNA to use in further research.”  
“I hate you,” I mumbled around my finger “Where are Demyx and Vexen?”  
“Attempting to carry out a capturing mission, the third one of the day,” Zexion said with a soft sigh.  
“Hey, beautiful!”  
We jumped and stared at the door as it was hammered through. I swallowed as the young man stood in the large hole in the wall, looking us both up and down lustfully. Zexion gulped.  
“A Lemon Stu,” he said “One of the worst kind.”  
“Lemon Stu?” I echoed.  
“A ladies man who can sleep with anyone that he chooses.” Zexion explained.  
“Well, who can’t resist my charm?” the Lemon Stu cocked a slender purple eyebrow.  
“Contamination shower room, now!” Zexion grabbed my wrist and dragged me to a nearby door.   
He slammed the door shut and locked it.   
“That won’t keep him for long,” he muttered.  
“Where can we go?” I asked.  
“There are Sues and Stus patrolling the whole castle, nowhere is safe,” Zexion whispered “We can’t leave the lab, we need it for research if Vexen and Demyx are successful in capturing one.”  
“Zexy, it didn’t work!” we stilled at the sound of Demyx’s voice.  
“Well, hello…”  
“No, not another one!” Demyx shrieked.  
“Run, IX!” Vexen shouted and there was a swirl of darkness.  
There was a silent pause and Zexion backed away.  
“You check to see if it’s clear,” he said.  
“Why me?” I hissed.  
“Demyx told me that you are responsible for this.”  
“This is all Axel’s fault!”  
“And you were stupid enough to listen to his opinion about the internet.”  
“How was I supposed to know this would happen?” I hissed.  
“Just…check, I’m more important than you.”  
“You’re only three years younger than me,” I scowled.  
“Yes and I’m more intelligent than you,” he folded his arms.  
“Excuse me for dying when I was fifteen,” I grumbled but carefully opened the door and peeked through the crack.  
There didn’t seem to be any sign of the Lemon Stu so I creaked the door open a bit more.  
“Ah, is my little butterfly coming out of her cocoon?”  
SLAM! I backed up and Zexion and I pressed ourselves against the far tiled wall.  
“Right, we might need to abandon the lab,” I whispered.  
“No, we can trap him,” Zexion decided.  
“How?”  
“Give me a minute.”  
“Oh, sweeties!” the Lemon Stu thumped his fists on the door.  
“I don’t think we have a minute,” I squeaked.  
“It won’t come to me if you rush me!” Zexion hissed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.  
“I know you want me,” the Lemon Stu’s silky voice entered the room “Come to me, I’ll show you a good time.”  
Oh God, I’m going to throw up.  
“You…need DNA, don’t you?” I whispered.  
“Skin sample, hair, blood, anything that might give us a lead,” Zexion nodded.  
“The longer you keep me waiting, the less gentle I’m going to be.”  
“Wait, I’ve got an idea,” I whispered and shoved Zexion into one shower stall “Stay quiet. And when I say now, you summon a Dark Corridor at the front of my shower stall.”  
I yanked the curtain across the stall before jumping into the one nearest to the door, closing my curtain mostly, making sure the Lemon Stu would investigate my shower first before Zexion’s. I jumped when that hammer smashed the door open and turned the shower on. I saw the glint of lust in his sparkly blue eyes while slowly unzipping my coat, biting my lip. He smirked and stepped into the shower.  
“There’s my little princess,” he purred and I pressed against the shower wall “Where’s the cute bookworm?”  
“Uh, I…I want you all to myself,” I pouted softly, holding back a repulsed groan.  
“Aw, you’re so cute and adorable,” he took my chin in his sparkly fingers.  
“Don’t you like that?” I asked as I slowly wrapped my hand through his hair.  
“Oh, I love that,” he purred.  
“Well, I don’t. Now, Zexion!”  
The Lemon Stu howled as I ripped out some of his hair and slammed the heel of my boot into his foot. My eyes widened when I smelt something that smelt like blood but just didn’t feel right. It smelt sweeter actually and I wrinkled my nose. It smelt wrong. As the Dark Corridor appeared before the shower stall, I shoved the Lemon Stu into it and it disappeared. Zexion came in with a raised eyebrow and I took my boot off. I stared at the glittery purple substance and raised an eyebrow. Was this the blood of a Mary Sue? I shrugged.  
“Two out of three isn’t so bad, is it?” I grinned at Zexion.  
“Let me get a couple of plastic bags,” he said and dashed off into the lab.  
I frowned as he came back with two plastic bags and his surgical mask back on. I dropped the hair and my boot into the plastic bags and he sealed them up, bustling away from me to study them. I followed him with a frown then realised.  
“I don’t think I’ve been contaminated,” I said.  
“How much did he touch you?” Zexion asked.  
“He just touched my chin and obviously I had to touch his hair and scalp to pull his hair out,” I grimaced.  
“Hm…”  
Zexion paused as he lifted his head up from examining the Lemon Stu’s hair.  
“Just don’t come near me, early symptoms of contamination will involve you being able to control your arousal and wanting to have sex with everyone.”  
I retched and Zexion pointed me towards the bin. I managed to hold it in and sighed.  
“Seriously, why?” I whispered softly.  
“A lot of fan girls who write stories about us think that their main audience love explicit sexual content,” Zexion replied.  
“Whoa, what happened here?”  
I looked up and saw Axel carrying a comatose Xion into the lab and grinned when he saw me.  
“Thank goodness, I got worried when I saw you were gone from where we left you,” he said as he laid Xion on one of the tables.  
“Don’t come near me, I don’t know if I’m contaminated or not,” I said when Axel advanced towards me for a hug.  
“Contaminated?”  
Axel backed away carefully and pressed his back against the wall.  
“Contaminated by what?” he asked.  
“A Lemon Stu, we managed to get some DNA for research,” Zexion said and raised a strand of hair from his place with a double gloved hand.  
“Oh God, why did you search up me and Roxas on the internet?” Axel groaned and I snarled.  
“If I knew this would happen, I would have not even dared to look up pictures of you and Roxas getting it on!” I snapped at him.  
“We got one!”  
We all turned our heads towards the hole in the wall. Vexen and Demyx carried a writhing body bag and tossed it through an open steel door, shutting and locking it whilst breathing a soft sigh of relief. Demyx’s eyes lit up when he saw me.  
“Xe-Xe!”  
“Don’t go near her!” Axel yanked him back when he charged towards me “She has had contact with a Lemon Stu.”  
“Ah!”  
Demyx hid behind Axel as Vexen grumbled under his breath.  
“Well, we did manage to get some DNA for research,” Zexion said as he held up my boot in a bag.  
“Oh, interesting,” Vexen bustled over to take a look at the blood.  
“Where’s Roxas?” I asked, folding my arms at Axel.  
Axel sucked in a deep breath and my eyes widened.  
“You lost one of our Keyblade wielders to the Mary-Sues?” I said incredulously.  
“We were outnumbered, I’m lucky to have gotten out and take Xion with me,” Axel said “And I don’t even know if she’s alright.”  
“Well, did you find any other members?” I asked as the steel door began pounding but no-one really paid much attention.  
“Xemnas, gone to who knows where,” Axel said as he rubbed the back of his head “Xigbar, I have no idea where he is either, they took his body. Xaldin, I saw him dealing with a handful of Jerk Sues at the Beast’s Castle. I saw Lexaeus hiding out at Agrabah. Saïx…I have no idea…”  
Oh God, Saïx! I shot up and hesitated.  
“I’m going to find him,” I said before dashing out.

**************************************************

I skidded to a halt in Addled Impasse a few hours later, my eyes widening when I saw a whole sea of light blue hair like Saïx.  
“Saïx, marry me!”  
“I’ll be the perfect companion!”  
“I’m pregnant with your children!”  
I saw red, took up my blades and tore through the crowd. How dare they?! He does not have the heart to love someone let alone marry them! I’ll kill them all! I paused when I lost my other boot in the fight and blinked. Am I actually feeling jealous over the Mary-Sues’ attention over Saïx? …No! I’m not jealous! I’m just…concerned that I might get a mentally ill mentor out of this, yeah, that’s right! Shaking my head, I managed to cleave my way through the crowd until I found a half-naked Saïx. I grabbed him by the naked torso and merged us together with our shadows, getting the hell out of there. We landed in the middle of Vexen’s lab and I groaned.  
“Headache, again,” I mumbled but it wasn’t as bad as when I had to carry two passengers.  
“Oh, looks like Xeann got lucky,” Axel joked.  
“You’re not feeling any arousal or like you want to engage in sexual intercourse with anyone, do you?” Zexion asked with concern.  
“What, no!” I spluttered and pushed Saïx off me “No, I saved the bastard and the Mary-Sues tore his clothes off and I can’t control where people land when we take off in shadow form…”  
“There’s no need to explain, as long as you don’t feel like you’re going to die if you don’t want to have sex,” Vexen explained with a dismissive wave of the hand.  
I sighed softly and got up, brushing myself down. I noted the dents in the steel door and cocked my head to the side.  
“Wow, it’s lucky that it didn’t break out,” I commented.  
“Yes, actually that is strange,” Zexion perked up “Xeann, go and investigate.”  
“Why me again?!” I shrieked and winced as it added to my headache.  
“You let them loose.”  
“And you’re probably already contaminated with Lemon Stu and Relationship Sue DNA,” Vexen muttered.  
“Oh, fine! This is still all Axel’s fault.”  
“You were the one who surfed the internet!” Axel snapped.  
“You were the one who got me curious!”  
“Curiosity killed the cat!”  
Oh my God, Ebony! I stilled and sighed.  
“Fine, I’ll check,” I grumbled as I stormed over to the steel door, intending to go straight to my room to check up on my precious cat.  
I carefully unlocked the steel door and cracked it open. Swiftly, I flicked the light switch on in the containment room. No sign of life so far. I cracked the door open a bit more. I then abruptly slammed it open. There was pink glittery dust everywhere and no sign of the Mary-Sue that Vexen and Demyx managed to catch and contain. I checked behind the door just to make sure and turned to the guys.  
“Nothing but dust,” I replied.  
“Now that is strange,” Vexen hurried into the room and took a sample of the dust “It must have committed suicide or something.”  
“If it committed suicide, there would still be a body available to revive,” Zexion reminded him.  
“But this is extraordinary, we didn’t do anything to it other than shove it into a body bag,” Vexen frowned.  
“And ignore it,” Axel blinked.  
Zexion stared up at Axel with wide eyes.  
“Of course! Mary-Sues thrive on attention, they just wither and dissolve when there’s no attention for them available.”  
“Wait…so we just ignore them and they’ll go away?” I raised an eyebrow.  
“Precisely,” Vexen nodded as he examined the dust through a microscope.  
“So, how do we get all the worlds to ignore them?” Demyx frowned.  
“Yeah, we can’t just put up a notice to everyone to ignore anyone bright and sparkly,” I remarked as Axel and I heaved Saïx up from the floor and placed him on an examination table.  
“We’ll have to trap them in a place where they can’t get out or get any attention,” Zexion murmured as he cupped his chin thoughtfully.  
“Well, why not Castle Oblivion?” Vexen suggested.  
“What’s Castle Oblivion?” I asked.  
“It’s the other castle that belongs to the Organization,” Zexion explained “There are numerous rooms in which we can trap the Sues and Stus in, it’s perfect.”  
“Right, so how do we get them in there?” I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow.  
“Axel, you’re the most popular canon character,” Vexen gave a glance towards the mentioned “You can be the bait and Xeann can round them up…”  
“OK, I’ve done enough to recount for my actions,” I snapped.  
“They’ll more likely listen and pay attention to you,” Zexion pointed out “They won’t trample you like they’d trample us.”  
“And why not?” I raised an eyebrow.  
“Because you’re not a canon character. In fact, you used to be a Mary-Sue yourself.”  
“What?!” Myself, Axel and Demyx exclaimed.  
I used to be a Twilight vampire? Ew, no, argh, no, wrong, no, why? I saw Axel and Demyx shrink away from me and glowered at Vexen.  
“How dare you accuse me for being one of those things!” I shrieked at him.  
“Your DNA partially matches the Mary-Sue DNA we already have,” Zexion explained “You’re the Mary-Sue that joined the Organization a few years ago. As we didn’t know how to get rid of you, we simply altered your appearance, changed your personality, improved your backstory and memories then left you in Twilight Town.”  
I grimaced and stepped back. Does that mean my memories of my parents and my friends weren’t real? Heck, did they even exist now? I scowled and shook my head.  
“So I’m just another one of your experiments?” I spat.  
“No,” Zexion shook his head then paused “Well, yes, kind of.”  
“Ugh!” I turned on my heel, intending to abandon them.  
“Hey, you started this, don’t leave us now!” Axel barked as he stood in front of the exit.  
“I have half my mind set on leaving the whole freaking Organization!” I barked back.  
“And even if you did, where would you go?” Zexion stood from his place “The Mary-Sues will destroy the worlds one at a time and you will have no home to go to.”  
“Please, Xe-Xe!” Demyx begged as he stood next to Axel “Do this for us?”  
“How can I do it for you, I’m a proper Nobody if I’m not even supposed to exist,” I spat at him in contempt.  
“But you’re our friend!” Demyx whined.  
“I’m not even supposed to be your friend!”  
“May I interject?”  
I whirled around and glared at Vexen.  
“If it will make you feel any better so you will cooperate,” he said “Your very existence has created an alternate universe to the original one.”  
“Continue,” I folded my arms and tapped my bootless foot.  
“There are many, many universes that exists,” Vexen continued “Mary-Sues often dominate these alternate universes. Do you dominate this one?”  
“I wouldn’t say dominate but if I created this universe…shouldn’t I?”  
“No, otherwise you’d be a Mary-Sue,” Vexen snapped grumpily.  
I held my tongue and sighed.  
“You have no part in alternating the story of the original universe other than expanding the timeline of the Organization’s existence,” Vexen continued “If you really did dominate this universe, we would all have hearts and lead all our separate lives in our home worlds. This would upset the balance of the universe as we were not destined to lead those paths.”  
“So are you saying we won’t get our hearts back?” I cocked an eyebrow.  
“No, I’m just saying that we would have already completed Kingdom Hearts,” Vexen snapped again.  
I lifted my hands in alarm then sighed.  
“So, I’m not endangering this universe?”  
“No, not at all,” Zexion confirmed with a nod.  
I sighed then turned to Axel.  
“Alright, you,” I said and jabbed a finger into his chest “Coat and shirt off, those Mary-Sues will come flooding towards us.”  
“Wait, what?” Axel yelped and jumped back.  
“They were flooding Saïx when I found him topless, you do the same thing and we shouldn’t have that much of a problem.”  
“I see a problem,” Demyx said “How do we get them into separate rooms?”  
“Well it looks like someone will have to stand at the doors, push the last Mary Sue that comes in into the previous room then lock it,” I shrugged.  
There was a pause and I stared expectantly at Demyx. He caught my drift.  
“No way!” he exclaimed and shook his head “I’m not doing it!”  
“It’ll be easy if you just use your water powers to flood them out, you won’t have to touch them,” I folded my arms “Or better yet, use your water clones.”  
“No!”  
“Demyx…” I tapped my foot and raised an eyebrow “Don’t make me lock you up in a room with pictures of you and another member of the Organization getting it on.”  
Demyx sucked in a deep breath then sighed.  
“Alright, I’ll do it,” he muttered as Axel unzipped his coat and took his shirt off.  
“Then let’s go!” I grinned “Meet us at Castle Oblivion, get your water clones ready at every doorway and have a set of earplugs in handy.”  
“We have earplugs in the top desk drawer,” Vexen mumbled as he began examining the blood on my boot.  
We all took a pair of earplugs, plugged them in then I grabbed Axel’s wrist. I proceeded to drag him through the worlds. First Twilight Town, enticing a few squeals and a small crowd forming behind us as we ran through the streets. I made sure to keep the Dark Corridors open long enough for all the Mary-Sues to get through. We ran through Hollow Bastion, jogged through Agrabah, dashed through Halloween Town, sprinted through the Beast’s Castle, hurried through Neverland, tore through Traverse Town then eventually raced through the Castle That Never Was. By then, I could safely assume we had about ninety-nine percent of the Mary-Sue Army. My legs were aching and Axel was complaining but I couldn’t really hear much from him.  
“Alright, one last sprint!” I shouted and went through the last Dark Corridor to Castle Oblivion.  
I let Axel overtake me as we entered the castle. He knew this place better than me. And boy, it was a maze! I stumbled after the older man through the numerous rooms, tripping up and falling in one room but it seemed that Axel wasn’t going to stop running so I lay on the floor, waiting for the crowd to disperse and the doors slam.  
“Hey!”  
I cracked my eye open to see a Mary-Sue with light green hair and pink highlights hammering on the door, her Keyblade in hand. She tried using it to unlock the door but it just wouldn’t work that well. She was already losing her power.  
“Why won’t it work?” she whined as I played dead and ignored her “Let me through! It’s not fair, let me pass!”  
I discretely pushed my earplugs further into my ears to avoid acknowledging her. I continued lying on the floor, being dead and didn’t respond when she began pushing me, telling me to wake up and trying to revive me. I mentally chanted nursery rhymes in my head and talk to myself about how some are creepy and how I find some cute. I kept my eyes shut as I pictured Little Bo-Peep with her sheep. I don’t know when the pushing and shoving stopped but it was when someone pulled my earplug out that my attention was finally caught.  
“Well, it looks like one of your plans actually worked.”  
I seethed and sat up, mouth open to retort but it snapped shut when I saw Saïx crouching over me.  
“Saïx…” I uttered and took the other earplug out.  
“Although, I believe the one next door is still alive, so it would be best to stay in here,” Saïx glanced at the locked doors where a pile of sparkly green dust was.  
I looked down and fiddled with my coat thoughtfully.  
“Saïx, what was I like when I was a Mary-Sue?” I asked timidly.  
Saïx quirked an eyebrow.  
“Why do you want to know?” he asked.  
“Please…I’m curious.”  
Saïx sighed as he sat down and stared ahead thoughtfully.  
“You were a couple of feet taller, you had a beauty spot in the shape of a heart underneath your eye, you had some form of a gothic tattoo on your wrist, your original name was Kawaii Xeanna Annabelle Susanna Sabrina Marilyn Murphy and you smelled of apples,” he said and glanced at me “Right now you smell of sweat.”  
“Well I did run through a handful of worlds to get the Mary-Sues’ attention,” I raised an eyebrow and took my coat off to cool down a bit “Seriously? I had Kawaii at the start of my name?”  
“You also wanted to sleep with Zexion, me, Axel, Demyx, Xemnas and Sephiroth,” Saïx continued and that time, I did throw up at the mental picture.  
My mentor wrinkled his nose in disgust and I used my coat to cover the mess. We evacuated to the other side of the room where I sat down again.  
“You were fifteen and you claimed to have been raped when you were eleven years old until you came to the Organization by your father,” he kept speaking.  
“Saïx, don’t make me throw up again,” I growled.  
“Your mother hated you and your younger sister called you a freak so you were unloved,” Saïx continued “You were a loner at school, you didn’t have friends and you somehow knew what the purpose of the Twilight Town Mansion was.”  
“What is the purpose…?”  
“Not important. You also had a flawless singing voice and you cooked perfectly.”  
“What’s the matter with my singing now?” I scowled at him.  
“You can’t even sing Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses correctly,” Saïx folded his arms with a smug smirk.  
“I can so!” I snapped and jumped to my feet “Ring…”  
“Please, don’t,” he raised an unimpressed eyebrow.  
I puffed my cheeks out and huffed.  
“Eventually, the universe was distorting so we had to change you to balance it out,” Saïx continued “Who knew you would have joined the Organization again and create an alternate universe?”  
“Was I sparkly at all?” I asked carefully.  
“Axel had to wear sunglasses around you.”  
I winced at the thought.  
“Shall we return to the castle now?” Saïx offered as he opened a Dark Corridor.  
“OK,” I said and followed him.

******************************************

After sucking out the life of a rabbit, I headed off to my room to feed Ebony, clear out her litter box then go to sleep. I stopped dead at the doorway, the room filled with Ebony’s purring. It was that damn Lemon Stu from before. He got into my bedroom, took care of Ebony and was now sitting there with her. Apparently they can survive on animals’ attention too.   
“Ebony, bad cat!” I scolded.  
The maturing kitten let out a surprised yowl, scratched the Lemon Stu and ran to me. The Lemon Stu caught my eye and from then on, I began ignoring him. He complimented me as I placed Ebony on the bed, caressed my body when I took my cloak off, begged for my attention when I got into bed then slid in with me as I closed my eyes. It was tough to ignore him hugging and humping me but eventually it stopped when I felt myself pass out from exhaustion. When I woke up, I was covered in purple glitter. Ebony looked miffed, trying to get the purple glitter out of her fur. We shared a shower, much to her displeasure but she was more compliant when I made the shower a bit warmer.   
“Xeann, we found Roxas and…”  
I stilled when Axel came into the room and I hadn’t bothered to put any clothes on.  
“Oh…” Axel stood in the doorway, looking sheepish.  
“Get out!”  
I threw Ebony at Axel’s face and she clawed at him. Axel yowled and fell over, trying to get her off while I quickly dried off and pulled one of my coats on.  
“Have you ever heard of the concept of knocking?” I asked irritably.  
“How was I supposed to know that you were going to be in your room and you were going to be naked?” Axel asked as Ebony got off after leaving some scratches on his face and sauntered back to me “Anyway, we found Roxas, he’s in the middle of Hollow Bastion. But there’s a massive Heartless guarding his body. Could you take care of the Heartless while I grab Roxas?”  
“Why would I do that? Sephiroth will get me.”  
“Think of it as a last request for letting that Mary-Sue into our universe.”  
I sighed irritably before filling Ebony’s bowl up.  
“Just let me get some clothes on underneath this,” I said “I’ll be in the Grey Room in ten minutes.”  
“Gotcha, princess,” Axel grinned as he closed the door.  
I smiled, shrugging and shaking my head. I petted Ebony and grabbed a tank top and shorts. After finding a new pair of boots, I went to Hollow Bastion with Axel. Axel went one way to get to Roxas whilst I chose a different path to get to the Heartless. And as it turns out…  
“Sephy!”  
A shrill brought my attention to the sky and I saw a one-winged Mary-Sue chasing after Sephiroth, who was furiously hacking at her limbs to try to kill her. I cocked a sly eyebrow, smirked and skipped away. Well, at least the internet isn’t that bad.


	11. Valentine's Day

“Hey, Axel,” I said as I wandered into the Grey Room “Have you seen Xaldin?”  
“No, not really,” Axel shrugged as he toyed with one of his chakrams.  
“Hm…” I hummed and turned around to head out “Oh, your favourite flavour is sea-salt, right?”  
“You’d think that but it’s actually coffee.”  
“Oh, interesting…”  
“Why do you ask?”  
“No reason.”  
I sauntered out of the room.

********************************

“Demyx, have you seen Xaldin?” I asked the water manipulator as I found him in the gardens.  
“No, sorry,” Demyx said as he continued playing his sitar.  
“Ah…” I huffed and turned around to head back into the castle “Hey, what’s your favourite flavour?”  
“In what?”  
“In anything.”  
“Oh…I’d say coconut.”  
I scowled and walked off. I hate coconut.

**********************************************************************************************

“Have either of you seen Xaldin?” I asked Zexion and Vexen as I poked my head into their lab.  
They both shook their heads and I squinted at the pile of glittering dust in front of them.  
“Um…what are you doing?” I asked carefully.  
“Determining which remains of the Mary Sues belong to which category,” Zexion replied, his voice muffled by his surgical mask.  
I winced when I remembered that incident last week.  
“I see you gathered their remains up,” I noted the row of bottles full of glittering ashes and dust “But what are you going to do with them exactly?”  
“Experiment with them, what else?” Vexen waved his hand in the general direction of the caged up Heartless.  
I left slowly, in case I got contaminated and before they could decide to conjure up another so-called beauty potion.

****************************************************************************************************

“Saïx, have you seen Xaldin?” I asked my mentor, equipped with a finished report to avoid a lecture.  
He took the report and shook his head.  
“No, I don’t believe he’s returned from his mission yet,” he said.  
“Oh…” I uttered and turned my back to him “Say…you don’t like chocolate do you?”  
“No, why?” I could just imagine Saïx cocking a suspicious eyebrow at me.  
“Just curious,” I shrugged as I walked towards his door “Then what would your favourite flavour in anything be if it isn’t chocolate?”  
I bit my lip, pausing at the door to wait for the answer.   
“I suppose apple would be my favourite flavour,” he answered.  
I blushed lightly and smiled.  
“Yeah, apples are nice,” I said “But I’d say strawberry would be my favourite flavour.”  
“Typical.”  
I puffed my cheeks out and stormed off.

*********************************************

“Xaldin!” I called when I finally found him “Xaldin! I need your help!”  
Xaldin stopped and turned, raising an eyebrow.  
“With what?” he asked sceptically as I reached him.  
“What do you think? With cooking!” I lowered my voice “Valentine’s Day is coming up and I haven’t ever made my chocolates for my friends and crush by myself.”  
“You make chocolates for your friends?” Xaldin blinked “I was under the impression that Valentine’s Day was a celebration of love.”  
“There are different types of love,” I shrugged “I love my crush differently to how I love my friends.”  
“Sounds complicated,” Xaldin commented “And if I do not assist you?”  
“Then I’ll just have to attempt cooking the chocolates on my own and make a horrific mess in your beautifully clean kitchen,” I smiled and batted my eyelashes innocently.  
Xaldin stiffened.  
“Tomorrow, after missions. Make sure you have all your ingredients ready.”  
“Thank you, Xaldin!” I purred thankfully.  
“But I’ll only help you if you need it. I’m not doing your cooking for you.”  
“I understand, thanks again!” I cheered and skipped away happily.

*******************************************************************

So after a boring mission in Never Land, I was set up at the kitchen counter with coconuts, coffee beans, apples, chocolate, sea-salt ice cream and marzipan. I drummed my fingers on the marble surface impatiently, tensing up when Axel came into the room.  
“Hello,” he nodded and walked over to the fridge.  
He grabbed a carton of milk and began drinking from it. He turned, saw the line of ingredients and frowned.  
“What’s this?” he asked curiously.  
“Um…uh…cooking lesson,” I stuttered “I’m waiting for Xaldin.”  
“What exactly are you cooking?” Axel asked as he looked at the sea-salt ice cream and coffee beans.  
“A…uh…an old recipe my mother gave to me! She called it her Surprise Cake.”  
“Well if it’s anything like my Nan’s Surprise Stew, I’ll pass on the tasting,” Axel raised an eyebrow and walked out.  
I stuck my tongue out at him once he was gone. I resumed drumming my fingers on the kitchen counter until Xaldin finally came in.  
“Right, you’ll need to melt the chocolate first,” he said as he took out the utensils that were needed “Cut it up first, it will take longer for the chocolate to melt if you just stick the whole slab in.”  
He raised an eyebrow at the marzipan as I began breaking the chocolate up and I shrugged.  
“My crush doesn’t happen to like chocolate,” I explained.  
Now, I’m not entirely sure what happened next, it was kind of a blur and panic. I can only remembering hearing this though.  
“Keep an eye on the chocolate so it doesn’t burn, XVI. Dear Kingdom Hearts, how did you manage to set the chocolate on fire?! No don’t touch it!”  
“Ow!”  
“I said don’t touch it!”  
“Oh my God, Xaldin!”  
“It’s alright, but your hair has caught on fire too!”  
“SHIT!”  
“Quickly, quickly…no, don’t run away from the sink!”  
“My hair’s on fire! My hair is on fucking fire!”  
“Come to the sink, XVI! There…you may need a haircut.”  
“Why does cooking have to be so hard?”  
“You don’t think about what you’re doing is why. Now, let me melt the chocolate, you cut up the ingredients.”  
“Alright.”  
“Hey guys, what’s with the shouting?”  
“Nothing!”  
“What are you doing?”  
“Nothing!”  
“It smells delicious. Oh, coconuts!”  
“No, get out!”  
“XVI, don’t run with a knife in your hand!”  
“OW!”  
“Oh my God, Demyx! I’m so sorry!”  
“I’ll take him to the medical room. Just stand there, cut the ingredients and keep an eye on the chocolate.”  
“Ow…ow…”  
“…Do I smell burning again? SHIT!”  
It took hours but eventually we managed to get the four boxes of chocolates and a single box of marzipan with an apple filling finished. I sighed and winced whilst touching my burnt cheek.  
“How old are you exactly?” Xaldin raised an eyebrow as he nursed his burnt hand.  
“Nineteen…” I mumbled sulkily.  
Xaldin sighed and shook his head while I glanced around at the place.  
“I’ll help clean up,” I offered at the slightly messy kitchen.  
“No, I don’t want to handle you whining that you got washing up liquid in your eye,” Xaldin said.  
“I’m not Demyx,” I grumbled.  
“No, you’re worse.”  
I huffed and picked up the boxes.  
“Well, thank you anyway,” I smiled up at the superior member “And sorry for making such a mess. I really appreciate you for helping me.”  
“Just buy regular chocolates next year,” Xaldin commented as he began cleaning the kitchen counter.  
I puffed my cheeks out and stormed back to my room where I hid the chocolates in my wardrobe. Then on Valentine’s Day…  
“Hey, you two!” I grinned at the two Keyblade wielders and presented them two of the boxes “Happy Valentine’s Day.”  
Roxas and Xion looked down at them curiously.  
“What’s Valentine’s Day?” Xion asked.  
“It’s a day to celebrate love,” I explained “You two are two very close friends of mine and I love you like the younger sister and brother I never had.”  
Roxas opened his box and picked up a chocolate before tasting it.  
“Hey, it tastes like sea-salt ice cream,” he said and Xion opened her box to taste her chocolate.  
“Mm! It’s so tasty!” she smiled.  
“So they’re good to eat?” I asked excitedly.  
They nodded and I sighed in relief.  
“Thank goodness, I was so worried…Xaldin and I spent most of last night making them.”  
“Is that why you’ve got a burn on your cheek?” Roxas asked.  
I chuckled nervously and Xion giggled. We made our way to the Grey Room and I ran up to Demyx, checking to see if his knife wound was alright.  
“It’s alright,” Demyx smiled up at me “It hurt but it was nothing serious.”  
“Seriously, I was worried that you were turning into a serial killer,” Axel laughed “Random vampire running around with a knife and killing poor sitar players.”  
I punched him in the shoulder with a scowl before giggling with them. I presented their chocolates and Demyx scoffed his down without a second thought.  
“Thnk u,” he said with his mouth full and I shook my head with a soft smile “Cocnt ish mm fav…”  
“Oh don’t speak with your mouthful, Demyx,” I interrupted him with a motherly tone.  
Demyx swallowed before hugging me happily.  
“I love you, Xe-Xe!”  
Axel seemed happy with his own chocolates as he scoffed his down in a similar fashion to Demyx. Our chattering attracted the attention of Saïx who shooed us off to our missions. But before I took the next Dark Corridor to Hollow Bastion, I stayed behind with Saïx’s marzipan. He raised a sceptical eyebrow at them.  
“I told you that I didn’t like chocolate,” he said.  
“It’s not chocolate,” I said with a soft blush.  
I pressed the blue box into his hands insistently. He blinked and opened them to see the heart shaped marzipan treats. He eventually got the hint that I wasn’t leaving unless he tried one so took a dainty bite. He chewed slowly and stared down at me.   
“…Satisfactory, now go and complete your mission in Hollow Bastion.”  
My eyes lit up happily and I grinned at him, running into the open Dark Corridor…then ran into a solid chest.  
“Happy Valentine’s Day, princess.”  
FUCK!


	12. The Lemon Stu Incident

When I woke up one morning, the first thing that was brought to my attention was an arm wrapped tightly around my waist.  I slowly turned around and came face to face with a familiar, handsome and glittery face.

“Good morning, beautiful.”

WHAM!  The Lemon-Stu fell out of my bed after I punched him square in the nose.  I sat up, using the blankets to cover me and was about to march off to get clothed and get prepared to ignore him like before until it came to my attention that his blood smelt normal.  And it was red, unlike the glittery purple I had on one of my boots before.  I watched him as he steadily rose to his feet and narrowed my eyes.

“Have we met before?” I asked carefully.

“No,” he smiled as his nose healed miraculously.

“Why were you in my bed?” I asked as he got up and I began backing away slowly.

“I got lost in this castle and found you,” he began speaking with a wide smile “I was tired myself so I decided to sleep next to you.  You are so beautiful.”

“Flattery isn’t going to get you anywhere here, Stu,” I said with a soft gnash of my fangs.

“My name is Ragnarok.”

“Don’t care,” I sneered as my back bumped into my wardrobe “How did you get in the castle?”

“Well, I woke up in one of the labs downstairs.  I got terribly bored so decided to wander around.”

“Did there happen to be a creepy scientist with long blond hair down there too?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes and he was with the most adorable teenager with the cutest emo fringe,” he squealed like a girl and I cringed.

I sighed softly and shook my head.

“OK,” I huffed “I need to leave…”

“Oh, please don’t go,” he pouted softly.

“Ebony will keep you good company so long as you feed her,” I continued with a stronger tone and opened the wardrobe door “Ebony, keep an eye on him.”

Ebony mewed from her empty feeding bowls.  As I got into my wardrobe to change, I heard the Lemon-Stu fill her bowls and Ebony’s purring.  I snuck out of my room, locked the door and took a deep breath.

“VEXEN!!!”

I stormed down to the labs with a rather strong murderous intent.  I slammed the doors open as soon as I reached them, my blades coming out.

“What made you think that it would be a good idea to resurrect that Lemon Stu and have a replay of the Mary Sue Attack?!” I barked at the scientist as I strode up towards him.

“Hello, gorgeous,” a number of voices chorused.

I froze up and turned around to see the whole lab was crowded with the same Lemon Stu that I had found in my room.  Zexion cleared his throat harshly and they all sat back down in their seats, filling out some questionnaire of sorts.  I felt faint and leaned against the countertop behind me.

“What the hell?” I breathed as I examined them one by one.

“XVI, we’re in a research study here,” Vexen explained rather exasperatedly “You can’t just storm in here without knocking or asking for permission to enter.”

“What is going on?!” I hissed as I met his glare “Why do you have a whole freaking army of Lemon Stus?  The same one no less.”

“The same, yes but not quite,” Zexion murmured “We’ve been altering different key aspects of this particular Stu to study.”

“Why are you studying this one?” I whispered.

“You saw how much potential he had with that hammer,” Zexion replied “If we could mould him into a simple original character, we can recruit him into the Organization.”

“You can’t do that,” I whimpered as I shuddered at the thoughts.

“We did it with you, we can do it with him,” Vexen said dismissively.

“Couldn’t you just study them one at a time?”

“This takes less time,” Zexion answered then turned to me fully “How did you know we had resurrected him?”

“One of them got into my room,” I replied with a scowl “Shall I bring him down?”

“Did he have the red blood instead of the purple like you collected?” Vexen asked.

I nodded.

“Then no, you may leave him up there.  He’s finished his questionnaire, rated him to be not quite a Stu so not a hazard.”

“He isn’t going to stay in my room forever,” I scowled.

“He can’t leave the castle because he isn’t a safe original character,” Zexion said “He isn’t quite a Stu either so ignoring him won’t make him go away.”

“Finished!” the Stu with the blue instead of purple hair said.

“Hand in the questionnaire and stand by the lab doors to await further instruction,” Vexen toned.

“Then what are we going to do with him?” I hissed “Oh, do I get to kill him?”

“That is very cruel of you,” Zexion smirked with a raised brow “I wonder if you’d be able to best him in a fight as he is probably much stronger than you.”

“Aw, but I don’t want him to stay in my room,” I huffed and eyed Vexen warily as he took another pinch of the purple dust and placed it on a piece of equipment of sorts “What are you doing?”

“Making another clone.”

“Seriously?  How many have you resurrected?”

“About fifty two,” Vexen replied as he pressed his eyes to the eye pieces of the machine.

“I’m forty-nine!” the blue haired Stu beamed with a wave.

“I’m twenty-one!” the Stu with an emo fringe like Zexion grinned.

“I’m thirty-four!” the non-sparkly Stu put his hand up.

“That’s quite enough,” Zexion purred which made them squeal briefly before returning to their questionnaires.

“Uh, Zexy!” a physically identical Stu raised his hand “I need help with this question!”

“He looks normal,” I muttered as Zexion grumbled at his nickname.

“He’s got dyslexia,” he mumbled and made his way over.

“So back to the actual issue, what do I do with the Stu in my room?” I turned to Vexen with folded arms.

“Hmm…bring him back down here, you can try to mould him into a normal original character.  Since you’ve got yourself involved now, you’ll have to assist us.”

“I have to?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, you do,” Zexion said firmly and swatted a wandering hand that attempted to grope him.

“And I have to do this for every Stu?”

“Yes.”

“Then what happens to them?”

“We send them off to different worlds, let them develop and hopefully get one of them to be recruited as XVII of the Organization.”

“Sounds like a long experiment,” I huffed.

“It will be done quicker if you hurry up and get the Stu from your room down here!” Vexen snapped and I jumped.

“Sure thing,” I muttered and went to the doors.

“Bye, princess,” the Stus chanted as I left the room.

“I’ll miss you,” the blue haired whispered and bit his lip.

“I’m a lesbian,” I said to him as he gave me a suggestive pout to my glare.

He huffed as I marched back up to my room.  By the time I had reached my corridor, members of the Organization were leaving their rooms and going to the Grey Room to get their missions.  I snuck into my room without anyone noticing me.  I saw Ebony curled up on the bed and the Stu was…gone.  I frowned.  Had he gone wandering off again?

“Ragnarok?” I called.

“Princess!”

Seriously, I’m getting sick of that nickname!  My eyes widened and I covered them when the Stu waltzed out of the bathroom, wet and stark naked.

“God damn it, you Lemon Stu!” I hissed “Put some clothes on!”

“Aw, are you shy?” he purred into my ear.

“No, I never have been heterosexual in my life, so put on some damn clothes!”

“But surely, you can make an exception for me?” he whispered as his hands crawled around to unzip my coat.

“NO!”

I pushed him away and focused my eyes on the floor, darting to the other side of the room.

“Clothes!  On!  Now!” I barked.

“Your shyness makes me horny.”

“I’m not shy!  I’m completely, one hundred percent gay!  Now leave me alone and PUT SOME FUCKING CLOTHES ON!”

“Such foul language,” the Stu sighed “I ought to spank you.”

I ran out and slammed the doors shut, sliding down and covering my face in embarrassment.

“I hate Vexen so much,” I whined.

“Xeann?”

“Is everything alright?”

I looked up at Roxas and Xion and smiled.

“Yes, everything’s fine,” I said and squeaked, jumping up and gripping the handles of the door so the Lemon Stu couldn’t get out, giving a nervous chuckle.

“Are you sure?” Xion frowned.

“Yes, perfectly sure!”

I sure looked convincing when the Stu began banging on my door.

“Um…OK, maybe a tiny little problem with…uh…Marluxia’s plant!  You know, the one with the vines that he gave me for Christmas?”

“Oh, well why didn’t you give it back?” Roxas asked with a frown.

“That would be terribly rude,” I answered.

“Well, why didn’t you throw it out?”

“I didn’t think it would actually be hostile towards me.  Anyway, it’s my problem now so go and tell Saïx that I’m a bit tied up at the moment and I can’t do any missions today, alright?”

“Um…well OK but would you like any help?” Xion offered.

“No, no, you two collecting hearts is more important than me spying on people and getting rid of any potential threats,” I squeaked as the doors jolted a bit “Just go, please!”

They jumped and scurried away.  I sighed and jumped again when I felt the Stu get out his hammer and try to knock the doors down.  As I stayed there, back pressed against the doors desperately and trying to think of a way to incapacitate the Stu and get him to put some clothes on, Larxene came out of her room.

“What’s with all the noise?” she asked.

“Marluxia’s plant has gone mental and I think it’s actually a Heartless!” I blurted out the cover story.

Well I wasn’t going to cause any panic by saying that Vexen had an army of Lemon Stus down in his lab, was I?

“Sounds…nasty…” Larxene tilted her head as the doors cracked under the impact of the Lemon Stu’s hammer.

“Might need some taming actually,” an idea popped in my head as I looked at her “Do you happen to have a shock collar?”

“Electricity doesn’t really have much effect on plants,” Larxene raised an eyebrow “Didn’t they teach you that in school?”

“Yes, they did,” I scowled at her as she grinned “But it uprooted itself from the plant pot so it isn’t connected to any ground, it should have more of an effect.”

“Hm, you’re actually not as dumb as you look,” Larxene raised her eyebrows.

“OK, yes I died when I was fifteen and failed to complete my education but that doesn’t mean I am stupid!” I growled “So do you have a shock collar or not because it might be very useful right now!”

I screamed as the doors cracked open slightly but I shut them back firmly.

“I do,” Larxene grinned sadistically, she was enjoying this like I enjoy Phantom of the Opera!

“Then please, Larxene,” I begged “Please, please, please, please, please let me use it, I’m begging you and I’ll beg more if I have to and I’ll let you torture me for your own sadistic pleasure.”

“Hm…” she hummed.

The doors jolted again, which made me scream again.

“Look, Larxene!  I’ll let you call me the Organization’s whore all the time, I’ll let you shock me while I’m in the shower, I’ll let you take photos of me naked and post them online, just please give me your shock collar to borrow!”

“Oh, you drive a hard bargain,” Larxene hissed “Let’s see, do nothing and watch you get attacked by Marly’s plant, turned into a Heartless apparently, or give you the shock collar to be able to do all those things…”

“Larxene, please!” I screeched “I’m going to cry here!”

“Oh please do!” Larxene’s eyes lit up and I groaned at the thought of being humiliated by my crying “Cry.  Cry and I’ll give you the shock collar.”

I hate her!  The tears welled up in my eyes and I sobbed pathetically.

“Larxene, this is the most humiliating thing ever!” I cried as the tears streamed down my cheeks “Please, please just give me your shock collar before anyone else sees me!”

There was a flash and Larxene cackled, fingering her camera in delight.

“Wait here,” she said and dashed into her room.

The stupid bitch!  Fucking cunt!  Blonde whore!  I’m going to kill her!

“Here we are,” she sung as she came back with a collar attached to a leather leash and a remote.

I snatched them, open the doors, went in and slammed them before giving the Stu a well-aimed kick to the groin.  He fell over with a pained groan and I attached the collar to his neck and stood up, sniffing and wiping the tears from my eyes.

“Why are you crying?” he recovered almost immediately from the assault “Please don’t cry.”

“Just put your clothes on,” I sobbed.

“No, I want you to tell me what’s wrong first.”

“Bad Stu,” I snarled and pressed the remote to give him a shock “Put your clothes on now.”

The Stu yelped and I followed him to the bathroom where he scrambled to put his clothes on.  When he was finished, he gave me the puppy eyes and I sighed.

“Good Stu, come on, we’re going back to the labs.”

“Don’t want to.”

I shocked him again and dragged him out of my room, Larxene had left to go get her mission thankfully.  I was still crying as I began leading the Stu back down to Vexen’s lab, wiping my tears and sniffing.  I kept shocking the Stu whenever he offered to comfort me.  The thing was, as I kept crying, I kept having depressing thoughts.  It was a vicious cycle.

“XVI?”

I froze when I saw Xemnas down the corridor we were on and sniffed my tears up.

“S-Superior,” I greeted, bottom lip wobbling.

“Mansex,” the Stu nodded and I shocked him again.

Xemnas raised an eyebrow as he approached us.

“What is going on?” he asked.

“S-Sir,” I straightened up “Assisting V-Vexen with his research study f-for the day.  D-During the retrieval of s-subject…what’s your number?”

“Eighteen,” the Stu said with a smile.

“During the r-retrieval of subject eighteen, L-Larxene made m-me cry s-so forgive my l-loss of control over m-my emotions.”

I wiped my nose and cursed under my breath when the tears began flowing again.  When a hand touched my cheek to wipe the tears away, I shocked the Stu again.

“I didn’t touch you!”

“You didn’t?” I hiccupped and looked to see that it had been Xemnas “Oh, sorry.”

I sniffed and tugged the Stu along.

“We need t-to go now,” I murmured and marched back down the corridor.

As soon as we were out of sight, the Stu opened his mouth.

“I don’t like the way he was looking at you,” he whined.

“And I d-don’t like the way you look at me so shut up!” I sobbed louder and shocked him again.

I can see why now Larxene was so sadistic because the pained yelp made my lips quirk into a small smile.  I was still crying when I reached the labs and Vexen sighed.

“Honestly, girl, it’s only moulding them into better characters!” he sighed and turned to me.

“Larxene made me cry!” I wailed “I haven’t fully recovered from it so give me a break!”

There was a chorus of ‘aw’ from the Stus in the lab and their sympathy just made me cry harder.  Zexion muttered something about women and shoved something into my chest.

“Calm yourself down,” he said and sat me down on a spare chair “And when you do calm down, I’ll teach you how to mould the Stus.”

“OK,” I whimpered and stared at what he’d given me “What’s this for then?”

“I’ve read that chocolate cheers girls up,” Zexion replied “And don’t you dare whine about getting fat, it’s only one slab.”

I pouted and handed the Stu over to him before tearing the wrapper off and munching on the delicious and precious chocolate.  It has been so long since I last had chocolate!   I slowly calmed down, having a box of tissues to wipe my eyes and blow my nose on.

“There we are,” Zexion sighed as the dyslexic Stu said that he was finished “Better?”

“Much, thank you,” I mumbled, more worried about whether I had red cheeks and a red nose now from the crying.

“Now, if you would come with me and the normal blood Stu…”

He set me up in a room where I was given the Stu’s questionnaire results, a typical template of what an original character should be like and wired us both up to some dodgy looking machine.

“And why do you think I’d be able to mould him correctly?” I asked after Zexion finished explaining and allowed questions.

“Because we need a young creative mind for the job,” Zexion replied.

“You’re younger.”

“Not as creative as you most probably.”

“You read a lot.”

“Your mind is wired to your creator’s so it will do a good job,” Zexion dismissed “After moulding the Stu, take him to a world, leave him there to his own devices and then report back for the next Stu.”

“Well…OK…”

I stared blankly at the grinning Stu as Zexion left us.

“Um…OK the first thing to go is most definitely your sexual drive.”

That took a lot of points off and the Stu’s smile faltered a bit.  He then began smiling genuinely, rather than looking like a sex predator.

“Your name isn’t really a normal name so I’d change it something like…Sky, Sky’s a good name.”

“Indeed it is,” Sky smiled.

“No glitter on the skin would be brilliant.”

That faded away quickly, thank God.

“You need a flaw and for me, it would be brilliant if you had a short attention span.”

“Sorry what?” Sky blinked as the points dropped more on the machine.

“That was pretty dramatic…” I commented with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh look, the numbers say a hundred and three!” he perked up.

This was going to take a long time.

 

* * *

 

Twenty five Stus later…

* * *

 

I yawned and rubbed my eyes tiredly as I returned from Traverse Town.

“Who’s next?” I mumbled.

“I am!” the freckled Stu said eagerly.

“Come on then.”

Oh come on, Vexen was making more!  Damn, this is going to take ages!

 

* * *

 

Fifty Stus later…

* * *

 

“Here you go,” Zexion tossed a rabbit to me and I devoured its blood hungrily.

After drinking it dry and discarding the corpse, I turned to the current Stu, named Eric, I was moulding.

“So where was I?” I muttered.

Eric slumped in his chair as he fainted and I looked down at the rabbit corpse.

“Oh yes, I just made you squeamish,” I grinned sheepishly.

 

* * *

 

A hundred Stus later…

* * *

 

“Zexion, I don’t want to do this anymore!” I whined as a Stu with an eye patch arrived.

“Here’s your coffee, keep working hard,” he said and shut the door.

I pouted and drank my coffee with a huff.

“Ragnarok?”

“Yes.”

“Not anymore, I’m naming you James because I’m running out of ideas for names…”

And thankfully that took a lot of points off the score.

 

* * *

 

Two hundred Stus later…

* * *

 

“This is the last one,” Zexion announced as a physically identical Stu came in.

“Are you sure, you said tha twennie Stus ago,” I slurred as I swayed on my seat.

“I’ll get you some more coffee.”

I yawned loudly and knocked over another coffee cup onto the pile next to me.

“Rag…what’s your name again?” I asked blearily as my vision began to fail.

“Ragnarok,” the Stu announced shyly.

“Not anymore…gah.”

And then I knew no more.

* * *

 

“…teen!  XVI!  XVI, wake up!”

I snorted when someone shoved me and woke me up.

“What?” I mumbled.

“Your last mould was absolutely terrible but it somehow passed for the machine’s requirements of an original character,” Zexion said, I think…I don’t know I couldn’t really hear him.

“Mmm, that’s nice,” I replied.

He then said something about going to sleep which sounded lovely but he somehow got me onto my feet and I was half sleepwalking back to my room.  I felt really dizzy and my head hurt.  Was this what if felt like for people who were drunk?  Interesting.  I was staggering down a really, really long corridor, although it could have been a long as a regular corridor in the castle, until I smacked into someone.  I smelt mint so I stepped back and looked up at who I’d crashed into.  I recognized the blue hair and the mouth moving up and down…wait, this guy had two mouths…no, two heads…  Everything then went black.

 

* * *

 

I woke up back in my bed, my breath tasting absolutely horrible from all the coffee I had from last night and my hair tussled.  I absolutely stank of sweat as well because I had gone to sleep in my tank top and shorts.  I was going to feed Ebony but saw that she’d already been fed and was playing with one of her cat toys on my balcony.  I smiled and went into my shower, washing myself and brushing my teeth.  I got dressed and headed to the Grey Area to get my mission to find that no-one was there.

“Hmph.  About time you woke up.”

I turned and blinked when Saïx came into the Grey Room with no missions on him.

“Really?  What time is it?” I frowned.

“Two o’clock in the afternoon.”

“Are you being serious?!” I exclaimed and rubbed my eyes “What time did I manage to get to bed?”

“About six o’clock in the morning.”

“No way!” I groaned and fell into a sofa “Wait, how do you know?”

“Don’t you remember?” Saïx raised an eyebrow “I had to escort you back to your room.”

“Oh God…” I groaned and covered my face.

“And as amusing as it is to hear your sleep talk, please refrain from walking around the castle when you clearly are in need of sleep.”

My face flushed as Saïx left.  What could I have possibly said to him in my sleep?


	13. Parting from Ebony

Out of all the weird things to happen in Twilight Town, meeting Ragnarok again was not something I was expecting.  It had been, what a month?  Yeah, about a month since I stayed up all night, functioning with nothing but coffee to imperfect the whole army of Lemon Stus and send them off to worlds as citizens so they could develop a bit more then recruit one of their Nobodies for the Organization.  But I recognized him almost immediately.

“X-Xeann!”

I froze up when I heard someone call me by my Nobody name.  I didn’t recognize it to be a voice from the Organization.  So when I turned, imagine my horror when I saw bright purple eyes, darker purple hair combed over the left side of the face and a dazzling smile glinting in the sunset light.

“Uh…um…” I stared at the guy dumbfounded.

“It’s me!  Ragnarok!” he said as he ran across the plaza “Whoa!”

I winced as he tripped over and landed heavily.  I blinked indifferently and swallowed.  He didn’t really look that much different from the original Lemon Stu.  Heck, this guy’s name is the same!  I remembered to change all the Lemon Stu’s names!  Did this one slip through?  Judging by the way he got up and slipped over backwards, I gathered that he didn’t.  The clumsy Lemon Stu I modified was renamed to be David and I sent him over to Traverse Town.  I watched as Ragnarok finally made it to me and gave me a bone-crushing hug.

“It’s been such a long time!” he said as I gasped for breath and fell over when he released me “I knew you’d come here sooner or later!”

“That’s…great…” I breathed as I got oxygen back into my lungs.

“I’ve been trying to get into a college so I can get qualifications to get a job then be able to rent out an apartment then you can move in…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop talking for a minute,” I said as I got up and stuck two fingers into his mouth to pinch his tongue “Move in?”

Ragnarok nodded shyly and pulled away, blushing.

“You see…you’re very pretty,” he said shyly.

“So I’ve been told…” I rolled my eyes at the memory of the army complimenting me on my looks.

“And I want to marry you!”

I stared at him blankly and resisted the urge to bash my head against a wall.

“Marry me?” I repeated with raised eyebrows.

“Well…you know…if you’re not going to marry Saïx…”

“I am certainly not marrying Scarface!” I barked “Or anyone!  I’m nineteen, I’m way too young to think about getting married!”

“Wow, you look younger than nineteen…” Ragnarok leaned in to examine my face.

“Uh, yeah, I’m a vampire, I don’t age much,” I said as I stepped away.

“Wow, our babies are going to be beautiful and supernatural.”

“We’re not going to have babies!”

Seriously, I don’t remember making any of the Lemon Stus delusional!  Ragnarok swung his arms behind his back and blushed.

“Well we can wait until I find a steady job before starting a family…”

“Are you even listening to me?!” I raised my voice.

“I don’t mind if you don’t have a heart but if you really want one then I can wait for you to get one with the Organization then we can start our life together so…”

I snapped my hand forward and pinched his tongue.

“Listen to me!” I snapped and used my free hand to gesture between us “We are not going to happen!  Maybe a few dates but no further than that unless you get a higher IQ.”

Ragnarok hesitated before removing my hand from his mouth.

“I wanted to be a…good character,” he said “And I took away my intelligence to keep my looks and name for you.”

“I’m just glad you took the sparkles away,” I muttered to myself before clearing my throat “Look, I feel flattered that you did that but looks aren’t everything.  And I am sure you’re a very nice guy but really, it isn’t a turn on to go on about a future together with a girl that you barely know.”

“I see…” he looked away sheepishly “I’m sorry, I’ll remember that next time.  But I would really like to get to know you and…well I’m lonely.”

Damn it, I want to give him a hug now!  I sighed softly and scratched the side of my face.

“I’m sorry but I’m sure there will be a girl here who will like you for who you are.”

Ragnarok stared at me pleadingly and I shrugged helplessly.

“I can’t help you, I need to focus on my goal for the Organization, I want to pick my life up as a human and just live,” I explained “I need to sort myself out before thinking about relationships and all that.”

“But…I…” Ragnarok opened and closed his mouth, staring at the floor.

I shifted before summoning a Dark Corridor.

“I’m sorry.”

I retreated to the safety of the World That Never Was and was immediately greeted by the sound of Ebony’s purring in the Grey Room.  I saw my kitten curled up on Axel’s lap with Demyx, Roxas and Xion around him, stroking and cuddling her.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” I said and Ebony leapt off Axel’s lap and walked over to me.

“Oh, Xeann,” Xion smiled “Ebony seemed lonely, we thought it would be nice to let her out.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of hard to keep a pet here,” I sighed as I picked her up and cuddled her.

“Flashie isn’t hard to keep,” Demyx frowned.

“Yes but he’s a goldfish, all he does is swim around his tank and you just need to feed and clean him out.  Goldfish have a three second memory, it doesn’t matter how you take care of them.  Kittens need more affection.”

I tickled Ebony under the chin with a soft smile before freezing at the idea that passed through my head.

“Excuse me for a second.”

I dashed through another Dark Corridor and appeared in front of Ragnarok.  I held Ebony up to him and he held out his hands, staring at me in surprise.  I placed her in his hold.

“I am finding it hard to look after her in between my missions,” I explained “She gets very lonely when I’m gone all day.  I want you to take care of her.”

Ragnarok glanced down at Ebony who stared up at him with wide, curious eyes.  She mewed and he scratched her ears, looking enchanted by the way she purred.  I smiled sadly.  I loved kittens but it would be best if Ragnarok took care for her.  I reached out and stroked Ebony’s hair.

“So long, little kitty,” I said.

I summoned a Dark Corridor as Ebony turned her head to me and mewed as I disappeared into it.

 

* * *

 

That was six months ago…I think.  I’m not sure, it began getting hard to keep track of time afterwards, what with the increase of missions, Castle Oblivion and then the Keyblade wielder coming to take down the Organization.  I woke up, cramped in the corner of one of Twilight Town’s alleyways.  I stretched my arms out with a yawn, letting the Organization coat slip from my body.  At least I had a blanket this time around.  I lay against the wall behind me, rubbing the sleep out of my eye.  I could feel the sunrise waning my power already and grumbled in annoyance.  I wanted to lean back and fall back asleep when…

“Mew.”

I snapped my eyes open and saw a black cat in front of me.  She pressed her front paws onto my knees and mewed louder.

“Ebony!”

Ebony?  We turned our heads to see a young man with purple hair approach us and stared at me with wide eyes.

“Xeann!”

“Anne,” I corrected softly “The Organization…fell…”

I shook my head and hugged myself.  Ragnarok held a hand out to me.

“Let me help you,” he said.

I stared at his hand long and hard.

“You don’t want to help me,” I warned.

“I do, please!” Ragnarok pleaded.

“Ragnarok, I’m pregnant,” I said.

Ragnarok hesitated and I shied away from his outstretched hand.

“Who’s…the father?” he asked.

“What does it matter?” I sulked “He’s dead.”

Ragnarok shifted but urged his hand forward.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said and I looked up at him “I’ll help you.”

Ebony mewed pleadingly and I hesitated.  I then took his outstretched hand, supporting my baby bump with a free hand and followed him out of the alleyway.


	14. Demyx's Passing

“Xeann, we need to talk.”

“I’m kind of busy right now, Saïx.”

“It’s urgent.”

“Like I said, I’m kind of tied up right now.”

“This isn’t the time to be having personal meetings.”

I glared down at my boyfriend.

“You try yanking a massive katana out of your chest that is in you at a hundred and twenty degree angle from the wielder!” I yelled as he continued watching Sephiroth keeping me impaled by his Masamune.

Sephiroth arched a slender eyebrow in amusement.

“Come to collect your little princess?” he drawled.

“She was late for the meeting earlier today,” Saïx folded his arms.

“I wouldn’t have been late if this drag queen hadn’t delayed me!” I snapped “Ow!”

Sephiroth had turned the blade a bit more, cutting into some more flesh and spilling more blood.  I gripped the blade harder to avoid sliding down.

“Was it important?” Sephiroth asked.

“Extremely,” Saïx nodded “Numbers can help when confronting the Keyblade wielder.”

“The Keyblade wielder, you say?”

“Ow, ow, ow, watch it!” I yelped as Sephiroth turned with Masamune, spinning me along until I was above Saïx.

“He’s returned, you say?” he said as Saïx stepped to the side to avoid getting my blood on him.

“Yes.  He has recently left Hollow Bastion to go on his travels once more.  I believe he will be back soon.”

“Hmm…interesting.”

“Argh!”

Next thing I know, he’s tossed me up into the air and let me land flat on my back in the middle of the plaza.  A feather landed on my cheek as Sephiroth made his exit and Saïx knelt beside me, muttering a Cura spell.

“You’re a lousy boyfriend,” I muttered as I flicked the feather off my face.

“I got him away from you,” Saïx raised an eyebrow as I took his hand and helped me sit up.

“True but what kind of boyfriend just lets his girlfriend be impaled by a douche who uses too much conditioner?” I scowled as I unzipped my coat to poke at my new scar.

“Don’t do that,” said boyfriend snapped as he swatted my hands and zipped my coat up.

We hesitated as his hand lingered and pulled away from one another, avoiding each other’s gazes.

“How far are we in this…relationship?” he asked.

I bit my lip and hunched my shoulders.

“Well we’ve gotten as far as tongues down each other’s throats,” I murmured with a bright blush “I’m not sure if I’m comfortable enough to go further yet…”

“I see…” Saïx said as he stroked the back of my hand.

Awkward silence hung between us as we sat in the middle of the plaza.  I took a deep breath and dared to look up at his face.

“Are you alright with being my boyfriend?” I asked nervously.

“I’m not against it,” Saïx tilted his head slightly “Are you uncomfortable with this relationship?”

“No, not really,” I shrugged “It’s my first relationship and I’m fine with it.”

“Good.”

More awkward silence.  Ah, screw it!  I grabbed him by the front of his coat and pulled him in for a sloppy kiss.  Saïx seemed a bit shocked as he tensed up and I smiled into the kiss. 

“Oi!” a voice made me pull away “That’s PDA!”

We turned our heads to see one of the local girls, Aerith I think her name is, standing not far from us with her hands on her hips.  Saïx yanked me up onto my feet and I stumbled after him as he pulled me into a Dark Corridor.

“Don’t do that again,” he said once we found ourselves in a seemingly abandoned corridor.

“I’m sorry, I don’t do well with awkward silence,” I muttered.

We stood in awkward silence after I spoke and I huffed softly.  Saïx smiled slightly and pressed his lips upon my forehead, stroking my hair softly.

“Ooh~!”

“Damn it, Demyx!” I snapped as we turned out heads to glare at the peeping sitar player.

He grinned before running off.  I sighed and smacked my head into Saïx’s chest as he growled.

“One day, I swear…” he whispered.

“Saïx, calm down,” I smiled as I reached up to tuck some hair behind his ear “He only has me as a friend now.”

I lowered my gaze with a sad smile before stepping away.

“See you later?” I smiled.

“Sure,” Saïx nodded.

I turned to go into my room but was pulled back.  I felt myself blush as he kissed my lips softly.  I kissed back, hugging him around the waist because it was too much work to reach up to wrap my arms around his neck.

“Oi!  That’s PDA!”

“Damn it, Xigbar!” I snapped as we both tilted our heads to glare at Xigbar who was above us.

“Hey,” the old man shrugged “You keep that stuff in the bedroom, not somewhere in a corridor where anyone can see.”

“Shouldn’t you be preparing for your mission in the Land of the Dragons?” Saïx asked with narrowed eyes.

“Already prepared for the midget,” Xigbar shrugged.

“Shouldn’t you be minding your own business?” I asked.

“Now where is the fun in that?”

I scowled and Saïx ducked down to my ear.

“I’ll give you a boost up,” he whispered.

I looked down to see him link his fingers together.  I immediately stepped into his hands and he threw me up.  I grinned at Xigbar’s questioning look before pulling back my fist and slamming it into his eye.

“Ow!”

Saïx caught me as Xigbar fell, swearing and holding his eyes, calling me all sorts of names that I’ve heard before in more original ways.

“As I was saying, see you later,” Saïx said as he set me down and gave me a rare smile.

I smiled back and retreated to my room.

* * *

 

“So, public displays of affection, eh?”

I pulled the bandages tighter on Demyx to which he yelped.

“So, got beaten by a little Keyblade wielder, eh?” I taunted.

“Ow, Xe-Xe!” Demyx whined as I tied the bandages around his torso.

“Sorry, Demy,” I said, fondly petting his mullet.

“Hey, you’d be whining too after getting beaten by him.”

“Oh come on, he can’t be as bad as Sephiroth,” I said as I put away the bandages.

“Ow…my tummy…” Demyx moaned as he hugged himself.

“Demyx, it’s going to be alright,” I soothed as I rubbed his back “You’ll get back at Sora.”

“He really hurt me!”

“Sephiroth nearly killed me!” I snapped.

I sighed at his pout and sat down next to him.  I hugged him and patted his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon and we can go back to being human,” I said “I don’t know how it’ll work but we’ll probably get sent to our own worlds again.”

“You know what the first thing I’m going to do is?” Demyx asked brightly.

“What’s that?” I smiled at his childish tone.

“I’m going to look for you,” Demyx said seriously as our eyes met “And then we can be the best of friends forever.  And we can find Axel too, if he comes back that is.  And then we can figure out a way to bring Roxas back too!”

I frowned curiously.

“Wasn’t there another person too?” I asked “I swear there was…that person…”

We frowned together but I shrugged.

“It might just be me mixing in my old memories with the new,” I smiled “Can we find Saïx too?”

“Ugh, if we have to,” Demyx rolled his eyes “Just don’t make out in front of me.”

“You only saw a kiss on the forehead, Demyx!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, icky, makes me feel like a third wheel,” Demyx stuck his tongue out at me.

I flicked his nose with a soft smile, shaking my head.  I gazed at him, my smile turning wistful.

“We could live nearby each other, get jobs and live normal lives,” I said “I don’t know what kind of job I’ll get, I could try looking for a waitress job perhaps…”

“I’ll work in an aquarium,” Demyx grinned “Or a musician.  Anything to do with fish or music!”

I chuckled and sighed.

“If things between Saïx and I go well,” I murmured dreamily “Then maybe we can begin a family.”

“Aw, little baby Xe-Xes and Saïxes!” Demyx cooed and I giggled.

“You and Axel can be on babysitting duty,” I said.

“And when I find a wife for myself and have a family, we can have playdates!”

We both giggled and held hands, grinning at one another.

“You’ll make a brilliant mom, you know,” Demyx said.

“I’m sure you’ll be a good father too,” I smiled “I just hope you can find the right woman for you to keep you in line.”

“Hey!”

Demyx shoved me then whined in pain.  I patted his shoulder sympathetically.

“You take it easy now, OK?” I smiled “I would prefer that my best friend in the universe to be in the best health possible.”

“OK,” Demyx grinned as he left the medical centre.

I smiled happily as he left.  That was the last time I saw him.

* * *

 

I woke up in Saïx’s arms a few days later, paperwork covering the both of us.  I sat up, watching as he adjusted his grip and smiled softly, brushing his hair back.  So, we’re comfortable sleeping in the same bed now?  How long until we go all the way?  I smiled and leaned down to peck his lips gently.  I yelped when his hand gripped my hip tighter, smiling in his sleep faintly.

“Must we act like a newlywed couple?” he asked.

“No-one’s watching,” I smiled.

“I am.”

“Damn it, Xigbar!”

Saïx tugged me back to the bed as I lunged for Xigbar who had stuck his head into the room via Dark Corridor.  He lay on top of me and sighed.

“We’re going to have a lot to clear up, it seems,” he drawled as he shuffled through some of the papers “Have you been writing in your sleep again?”

I looked over to see writing on the sheets and I heard a rare chuckle.

“Soft, silky, blue locks that I only have the pleasure in feeling?” he recited and I smacked him.

“I was asleep, I wasn’t thinking straight,” I scowled.

“You would be a terrific writer,” he said in a mocking tone.

“Shut up!”

I wriggled out of his grip then in a flash, ripped the sheets off.

“I’m washing all of this out!” I declared and marched out of the room.

I turned to glare at his chuckle and could only smile softly at him.

* * *

 

“Have you seen Demyx?” I frowned as Xigbar came back from his mission later that day.

The old man shook his head as he passed by me.  I frowned and tapped my fingers on my knees.  Xaldin came through next.

“Have you seen Demyx?”

“Not since yesterday.”

I huffed and clenched my fists, tapping my foot impatiently.

“Luxord, have you seen Demyx?”

“No, I believe he’s still in Hollow Bastion.”

I sighed and bit my lip.  I waited for a long time in the Grey Room, opting to curl up on the sofa as time passed.  I closed my eyes and drifted off slowly.  The swirl of a Dark Corridor roused me back awake and I looked up blearily when Xemnas came into my line of vision.  He paused for a minute to look down at me before walking off.

“Wait, sir!” I called, sitting up “Have you seen Demyx?”

Xemnas turned his head towards me, remained silent for another minute before walking off.  I dropped my gaze to the floor and tucked my knees into my chest.  Heaving a soft sigh, I waited patiently until Saïx came up to me from his mission in Hollow Bastion.  He shifted awkwardly and bent down to his knees, gripping my shoulders.

“Xeann…this may come as a shock to you,” he said slowly.

“Saïx, don’t use that tone with me,” I said as I gripped one of his wrists.

That’s the same tone my parents used when my goldfish died.  …Wait…

“Earlier today, IX was issued with a mission to Hollow Bastion…”

“Is he alright?” I asked shakily.

“He was tasked to intercept the Keyblade master…”

“Saïx, is Demyx alright or not?!” I snapped as I began shaking.

“…and he failed.”

I was hyperventilating.  I felt my chest going up and down rapidly, I felt myself nearly choking.  Saïx tried to pull a comforting face but knowing him, he didn’t know how so it came out as a grimace.

“He’s gone, Xeann,” he said “IX has been terminated.”

“No…” I whispered softly.

Saïx brushed away my tears as he gripped one of my hands.

“I…understand that you two were very close, I understand what it’s like to lose a close friend.”

“No…no, you’re lying!” I shouted “Demyx can’t be gone!  He just can’t!  He can’t be gone just like that!  You’re lying!”

“Xeann…”

I screamed and pushed him away.

“He can’t be gone!” I bellowed as I cried uncontrollably “We promised we’d be best friends forever once we got our new hearts!  We made so many promises!  Lots and lots of them!”

I began punching Saïx’s chest in frustration but with my distress, they didn’t affect him very much.

“If…” I sniffed as my punches weakened “If we got anywhere in our relationship and got married then had kids, he would help babysit them.  Then when he got settled down in a relationship of his own, we’d have playdates together.  He was going to take a job in either an aquarium or do gigs or something with that sitar of his.  We were going to have such normal lives like we wanted!”

I began to pick up the punches to his chest, getting angrier.  I screamed as Saïx picked me up and slung me over his shoulder.  I kicked and screamed like a little toddler as he carried me down the corridors.  I landed on his bed and buried my face into one of his pillows, sobbing loudly.  Saïx patted my back in an attempt to comfort me.  I cried and cried until my eyes got dry and my chest hurt from crying and screaming.  I remember arms holding me as I drifted off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

“Bye, Flashie,” I said as I watched Demyx’s goldfish disappear into the river “Good luck with life.”

I smiled sadly and set Flashie’s bowl down beside me.  I sat down and covered my face, shoulders hunched as I sobbed again.

“Oh, Demyx…” I mourned.


End file.
